Page:Poeticedda00belluoft.djvu/85
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Hovamol
Above and below the giants' paths lay, So rashly I risked my head.
106.[1] Gunnloth gave on a golden stool A drink of the marvelous mead;A harsh reward did I let her have For her heroic heart, And her spirit troubled sore.
107.[2] The well-earned beauty well I enjoyed, Little the wise man lacks;So Othrörir now has up been brought To the midst of the men of earth.
108. Hardly, methinks, would I home have come, And left the giants' land,Had not Gunnloth helped me, the maiden good, Whose arms about me had been.
109.[3] The day that followed, the frost-giants came, Some word of Hor to win, (And into the hall of Hor;)
- ↑ Probably either the fourth or the fifth line is a spurious addition.
- ↑ Othrörir: here the name of the magic mead itself, whereas in stanza 141 it is the name of the vessel containing it. Othin had no intention of bestowing any of the precious mead upon men, but as he was flying over the earth, hotly pursued by Suttung, he spilled some of it out of his mouth, and in this way mankind also won the gift of poetry.
- ↑ Hor: Othin ("the High One"). The frost-giants, Suttung's kinsmen, appear not to have suspected Othin of being
[51]