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Poetic Edda

By his side does Sigyn  sit, nor is gladTo see her mate:  would you know yet more?
36.[1] From the east there  pours through poisoned valesWith swords and daggers  the river Slith.....................................
37.[2] Northward a hall  in NithavellirOf gold there rose  for Sindri's race;And in Okolnir  another stood,Where the giant Brimir  his beer-hall had.

    pair has, "I know that Vali  his brother gnawed, / With his bowels then  was Loki bound." Many editors have followed this version of the whole stanza or have included these two lines, often marking them as doubtful, with the four from Regius. After the murder of Baldr, the gods took Loki and bound him to a rock with the bowels of his son Narfi, who had just been torn to pieces by Loki's other son, Vali. A serpent was fastened above Loki's head, and the venom fell upon his face. Loki's wife, Sigyn, sat by him with a basin to catch the venom, but whenever the basin was full, and she went away to empty it, then the venom fell on Loki again, till the earth shook with his struggles. "And there he lies bound till the end." Cf. Lokasenna, concluding prose.

  1. ↑ Stanzas 36-39 describe the homes of the enemies of the gods: the giants (36), the dwarfs (37), and the dead in the land of the goddess Hel (38-39). The Hauksbok version omits stanzas 36 and 37. Regius unites 36 with 37, but most editors have assumed a lacuna. Slith ("the Fearful"): a river in the giants' home. The "swords and daggers" may represent the icy cold.
  2. ↑ Nithavellir ("the Dark Fields"): a home of the dwarfs. Perhaps the word should be "Nithafjoll" ("the Dark Crags"). Sindri: the great worker in gold among the dwarfs. Okolnir

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