Page:Poeticedda00belluoft.djvu/56

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

Poetic Edda

51.[1] O'er the sea from the north  there sails a shipWith the people of Hel,  at the helm stands Loki;After the wolf  do wild men follow,And with them the brother  of Byleist goes.
52.[2] Surt fares from the south  with the scourge of branches,The sun of the battle-gods  shone from his sword;The crags are sundered,  the giant-women sink,The dead throng Hel-way,  and heaven is cloven.
53.[3] Now comes to Hlin  yet another hurt,When Othin fares  to fight with the wolf,And Beli's fair slayer  seeks out Surt,For there must fall  the joy of Frigg.
  1. ↑ North: a guess; the manuscripts have "east," but there seems to be a confusion with stanza 50, line 1. People of Hel: the manuscripts have "people of Muspell," but these came over the bridge Bifrost (the rainbow), which broke beneath them, whereas the people of Hel came in a ship steered by Loki. The wolf: Fenrir. The brother of Byleist: Loki. Of Byleist (or Byleipt) no more is known.
  2. ↑ Surt: the ruler of the fire-world. The scourge of branches: fire. This is one of the relatively rare instances in the Eddic poems of the type of poetic diction which characterizes the skaldic verse.
  3. ↑ Hlin: apparently another name for Frigg, Othin's wife. After losing her son Baldr, she is fated now to see Othin slain by the wolf Fenrir. Beli's slayer: Freyr, who killed the giant Beli with his fist; cf. Skirnismol, 16 and note. On Freyr, who belonged to the race of the Wanes, and was the brother of Freyja, see especially Skirnismol, passim. The joy of Frigg: Othin.

[22]

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.