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Voluspo
Famous and fair in the lofty fields,Full grown in strength the mistletoe stood.
33.[1] From the branch which seemed so slender and fairCame a harmful shaft that Hoth should hurl;But the brother of Baldr was born ere long,And one night old fought Othin's son.
34.[2] His hands he washed not, his hair he combed not,Till he bore to the bale-blaze Baldr's foe.But in Fensalir did Frigg weep soreFor Valhall's need: would you know yet more?
- ↑ The lines in this and the following stanza have been combined in various ways by editors, lacunae having been freely conjectured, but the manuscript version seems clear enough. The brother of Baldr: Vali, whom Othin begot expressly to avenge Baldr's death. The day after his birth he fought and slew Hoth.
- ↑ Frigg: Othin's wife. Some scholars have regarded her as a solar myth, calling her the sun-goddess, and pointing out that her home in Fensalir ("the sea-halls") symbolizes the daily setting of the sun beneath the ocean horizon.
- ↑ The translation here follows the Regius version. The Hauksbok has the same final two lines, but in place of the first
bling about, an oath that they would not harm Baldr. Thus it came to be a sport for the gods to hurl weapons at Baldr, who, of course, was totally unharmed thereby. Loki, the trouble-maker, brought the mistletoe to Baldr's blind brother, Hoth, and guided his hand in hurling the twig. Baldr was slain, and grief came upon all the gods. Cf. Baldrs Draumar.
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