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Poetic Edda

As a harbor mark  men shall mock at thee, Where in stone thou shalt ever stand."

(IV)

[1]King Helgi was a mighty warrior. He came to King Eylimi[2] and sought the hand of his daughter, Svava. Then Helgi and Svava exchanged vows, and greatly they loved each other. Svava was at home with her father, while Helgi was in the field; Svava was still a Valkyrie[3] as before.

Hethin was at home with his father, King Hjorvarth, in Norway[4]. Hethin was coming home alone from the forest one Yule-eve[5], and found a troll-woman; she rode

[6][7]

    Most editions give this stanza to Atli. With this the Hrimgertharmol ends, and after the next prose passage the meter reverts to that of the earlier sections.

  1. ↑ Prose. The manuscript does not indicate a new section of the poem.
  2. ↑ Eylimi: cf. note on prose after stanza 9.
  3. ↑ Valkyrie: here, as before, the annotator has apparently nothing but his own imagination on which to base his statement. Svava in the ensuing stanzas certainly does not behave like a Valkyrie.
  4. ↑ Norway: the annotator doubtless based this statement on the reference to Norway in line 2 of stanza 31.
  5. ↑ Yule-eve: the Yule feast, marking the new year, was a great event in the heathen North. It was a time of feasting and merrymaking, vows ("New Year's resolutions"), ghosts and witches; the spirits had their greatest power on Yule-eve.
  6. ↑ The king's toast: vows made at the passing of the king's cup at the Yule feast were particularly sacred.
  7. ↑ Sacred boar: a boar consecrated to Freyr, an integral part of the Yule rites. Hethin's vow, which is, of course, the vengeance of the troll-woman, is too sacred to be broken, but he immediately realizes the horror of his oath.

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