Page:Poeticedda00belluoft.djvu/42
This page has been validated.
Poetic Edda
Dori, Ori, Duf, Andvari,Skirfir, Virfir, Skafith, Ai.
16. Alf and Yngvi, Eikinskjaldi,Fjalar and Frosti, Fith and Ginnar;So for all time shall the tale be known,The list of all the forbears of Lofar.
17.[1] Then from the throng did three come forth,From the home of the gods, the mighty and gracious;Two without fate on the land they found,Ask and Embla, empty of might.
18.[2] Soul they had not, sense they had not,Heat nor motion, nor goodly hue;Soul gave Othin, sense gave Hönir,Heat gave Lothur and goodly hue.
- ↑ Here the poem resumes its course after the interpolated section. Probably, however, something has been lost, for there is no apparent connection between the three giant-maids of stanza 8 and the three gods, Othin, Hönir and Lothur, who in stanza 17 go forth to create man and woman. The word "three" in stanzas 8 and 17 very likely confused some early reciter, or perhaps the compiler himself. Ask and Embla: ash and elm; Snorri gives them simply as the names of the first man and woman, but says that the gods made this pair out of trees.
- ↑ Hönir: little is known of this god, save that he occasionally appears in the poems in company with Othin and Loki, and
Andvari: this dwarf appears prominently in the Reginsmol, which tells how the god Loki treacherously robbed him of his wealth; the curse which he laid on his treasure brought about the deaths of Sigurth, Gunnar, Atli, and many others.
[8]