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Voluspo

23.[1] On the host his spear  did Othin hurl,Then in the world  did war first come;The wall that girdled  the gods was broken,And the field by the warlike  Wanes was trodden.
24. Then sought the gods  their assembly-seats,The holy ones,  and council held,Whether the gods  should tribute give,Or to all alike  should worship belong.
25.[2] Then sought the gods  their assembly-seats,The holy ones,  and council held,To find who with venom  the air had filled,Or had given Oth's bride  to the giants' brood.

    magic and destructive power of gold. It is also possible that the stanza is an interpolation. Bugge maintains that it applies to the Volva who is reciting the poem, and makes it the opening stanza, following it with stanzas 28 and 30, and then going on with stanzas 1 ff. The text of line 2 is obscure, and has been variously emended.

  1. ↑ This stanza and stanza 24 have been transposed from the order in the manuscripts, for the former describes the battle and the victory of the Wanes, after which the gods took council, debating whether to pay tribute to the victors, or to admit them, as was finally done, to equal rights of worship.
  2. ↑ Possibly, as Finn Magnusen long ago suggested, there is something lost after stanza 24, but it was not the custom of the Eddic poets to supply transitions which their hearers could generally be counted on to understand. The story referred to in stanzas 25-26 (both quoted by Snorri) is that of the rebuilding of Asgarth after its destruction by the Wanes. The gods employed a giant as builder, who demanded as his reward the sun and moon, and the goddess Freyja for his wife. The gods, terrified by the rapid progress of the work, forced Loki, who had advised the bargain, to delay the giant by a trick, so that the

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