Page:Poeticedda00belluoft.djvu/55

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

Voluspo

48.[1] How fare the gods?  how fare the elves?All Jotunheim groans,  the gods are at council;Loud roar the dwarfs  by the doors of stone,The masters of the rocks:  would you know yet more?
49.[2] Now Garm howls loud  before Gnipahellir,The fetters will burst,  and the wolf run free;Much do I know,  and more can seeOf the fate of the gods,  the mighty in fight.
50.[3] From the east comes Hrym  with shield held high;In giant-wrath  does the serpent writhe;O'er the waves he twists,  and the tawny eagleGnaws corpses screaming;  Naglfar is loose.

    Fenrir, who slays Othin in the final struggle; cf. stanza 53. Surt is the giant who rules the fire-world, Muspellsheim; cf. stanza 52.

  1. ↑ This stanza in Regius follows stanza 51; in the Hauksbok it stands, as here, after 47. Jotunheim: the land of the giants.
  2. ↑ Identical with stanza 44. In the manuscripts it is here abbreviated.
  3. ↑ Hrym: the leader of the giants, who comes as the helmsman of the ship Naglfar (line 4). The serpent: Mithgarthsorm, one of the children of Loki and Angrbotha (cf. stanza 39, note). The serpent was cast into the sea, where he completely encircles the land; cf. especially Hymiskvitha, passim. The eagle: the giant Hræsvelg, who sits at the edge of heaven in the form of an eagle, and makes the winds with his wings; cf. Vafthruthnismol, 37, and Skirnismol, 27. Naglfar: the ship which was made out of dead men's nails to carry the giants to battle.

[21]

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.