INTRODUCTION
The Prose Edda is a text on Old Norse
Poetics,
written about 1200 by the Icelandic
poet
and politican Snorri Sturlson, who
also wrote
the Heimskringla. The Prose Edda contains
a wide variety of lore which a Skald
(poet)
of the time would need to know. The
text
is of interest to modern readers because
it contains consistent narratives of
many
of the plot lines of Norse mythology.
Although
Snorri was a Christian, he treated
the ancient
Pagan mythology with great respect.
To this
end, Snorri created a quasi-historical
backstory
for the Norse Gods. Hence the Prose
Edda
is of interest because it contains
one of
the first attempts to devise a rational
explanation
for mythological and legendary events.
It
is also notable because it contains
fragments
of a number of manusripts which Snorri
had
access to, but which are now lost.
THE life of Snorri Sturluson fell in
a great
but contradictory age, when all that
was
noble and spiritual in men seemed to
promise
social regeneration, and when bloody
crimes
and sordid ambitions gave this hope
the lie.
Not less than the rest of Europe, Scandinavia
shared in the bitter conflict between
the
law of the spirit and the law of the
members.
The North, like England and the Continent,
felt the religious fervor of the Crusades,
passed from potential anarchy into
union
and national consciousness, experienced
a
literary and spiritual revival, and
suffered
the fury of persecution and of fratricidal
war. No greater error could be committed
than to think of the Northern lands
as cut
off by barriers of distance, tongue,
and
custom from the heart of the Continent,
and
in consequence as countries where men's
thoughts
and deeds were more unrestrained and
uncivilized.
Even as England, France, and Germany
acted
and reacted upon one another in politics,
in social growth, in art, and in literature,
so all three acted upon Scandinavia,
and
felt the reaction of her influence.
Nearly thirty years before Snorri's
birth,
the Danish kingdom had been the plaything
of a German prince, Henry the Lion,
who set
up or pulled down her rulers as he
saw fit;
and during Snorri's boyhood, one of
these
rulers, Valdamarr I, contributed to
Henry's
political destruction. In Norway, Sverrir
Sigurdarson had swept away the old
social
order, and replaced it with one more
highly
centralized; had challenged the power
of
Rome without, and that of his own nobles
within, like Henry II of England and
Frederick
Barbarossa. After Sverrir's death,
an interregnum
followed; but at last there came to
the throne
a monarch both powerful and enlightened,
who extended the reforms of Sverrir,
and
having brought about unity and peace,
quickened
the intellectual life of Norway with
the
fructifying influence of French and
English
literary models. Under the patronage
of this
ruler, Hákon Hákonarson, the great
romances,
notably those of Chrétien de Troyes,
were
translated into Norse, some of them
passing
over into Swedish, Danish, and Icelandic.
Somewhat later, Matthew Paris, the
great
scholar and author, who represented
the culture
both of England and of France, spent
eighteen
months in Norway, though not until
after
Snorri's death.
Iceland itself, in part through Norway,
in
part directly, drew from the life of
the
Continent: Sćmundr the Learned, who
had studied
in Paris, founded a school at Oddi;
Sturla
Sigvatsson, Snorri's nephew, made a
pilgrimage
to Rome, and visited Germany; and Snorri
himself shows, in the opening pages
of his
Heimskringla, or History of the Kings
of
Norway, the influence of that great
romantic
cycle, the Matter of Troy.
Snorri Sturluson was in the fullest
sense
a product of his time. The son of a
turbulent
and ambitious chieftain, Sturla Thórdsson,
of Hvamm in western Iceland, he was
born
to a heritage of strife and avarice.
The
history of the Sturlung house, like
that
of Douglas in Scotland, is a long and
perplexed
chronicle of intrigue, treachery, and
assassination,
in all of which Snorri played an active
part.
But even as among the Douglases there
was
one who, however deep in treason and
intrigue,
yet loved learning and poetry, and
was distinguished
in each, so Snorri, involved by sordid
political
chicanery, found time not only to compose
original verse which was admired by
his contemporaries,
but also to record the myths and legends,
the history
{p. xi}
and poetry, of his race, in a prose
that
is one of the glories of the age.
The perplexing story of Snorri's life,
told
by his nephew, Sturla Thórdsson,[1]
may well
be omitted from this brief discussion.
A
careful and scholarly account of it
by Eiríkr
Magnússon[1] will be found in the introduction
to the sixth volume of The Saga Library.
From Snorri's marriage in 1199 to his
assassination
at the hands of his son-in-law, Gizurr
Thórvaldsson,
in 1241, there was little in his life
which
his biographer could relate with satisfaction.
His friends, his relatives, his very
children,
Snorri sacrificed to his insatiate
ambition.
As chief and as lawman, he gave venal
decisions
and perverted justice; he purposed
at any
cost to become the most powerful man
in Iceland.
There is even ground for belief that
he deliberately
undertook to betray the republic to
Hákon
of Norway, and that only his lack of
courage
prevented him from subverting his country's
liberty. Failure brought about his
death,
for Snorri, who had been a favorite
at the
Norwegian court, incurred the King's
suspicion
after fifteen years had passed with
no accomplishment;
and daring to leave Norway against
Hákon's
command, he fell under the royal displeasure.
Gizurr, his murderer, proved to have
been
acting at the express order of the
King.
Eiríkr Magnússon, in the admirable
biography
to which I have referred, attempts
to apologize
for Snorri's faults on the ground that
be
"really compares very favorably
with
the leading contemporary godar [chieftains]
of the land." It is true that
he made
no overt attempt to keep his treasonable
[1. Sturlunga Saga, edited by G. Vigfússon,
Oxford, 1878.
2. The Saga Library, edited by William
Morris
and Eiríkr Magnússon, vol. vi; Heimskringla,
vol. iv, London, 1905.]
{p. xii}
promise to Norway, but I think it by
no means
certain that repentance stayed his
hand.
Indeed, familiar as he was with the
hopelessly
anarchical conditions of his native
land,
its devastating feuds, its plethora
of lawless,
unscrupulous chiefs, all striving for
wealth
and influence, none inspired with a
genuine
affection for the commonwealth, nor
understanding
the fundamental principles of democracy,
Snorri may well have felt that it were
far
better to endure a foreign ruler who
could
compel union and peace. If this was
the motive
underlying his self-abasement at the
Norwegian
court and his promises to Hákon, then
weakness
alone is sufficient to account for
his failure;
if he had no such purpose, he must
be regarded
as both weak and treacherous.
It is with relief that we turn to Snorri's
works, to find in them, at least, traces
of genuine nobility of spirit. The
unscrupulous
politician kept sound and pure some
corner
of his heart in which to enshrine his
love
for his people's glorious past, for
the myths
of their ancient gods, half grotesque
and
half sublime: for the Christ-like Baldr;
for Promethean Odin and Týr, sacrificing
eye and hand to save the race; for
the tears
of Freyja, the tragic sorrows of Gudrún,
the pitiful end of Svanhildr, the magnificent,
all-devastating fire of Ragnarök.
His interest in these wondrous things,
like
Scott's love for the heroes, beliefs,
and
customs of the Scottish folk, was,
I think,
primarily antiquarian. Indefatigable
in research,
with an artist's eye for the picturesque,
a poet's feeling for the dramatic and
the
human, he created the most vivid, vital
histories
that have yet been penned. Accurate
beyond
the manner of his age, gifted with
genius
for expression, divining the human
personalities,
the comic
{p. xiii}
or tragic interplay of ambitions, passions,
and destinies behind the mere chronicled
events, he had almost ideal qualities
as
an historian.
Poet he was too, though the codified
rules,
the cryptic phrase, and conventional
expression,
which indeed "bound" together
the
words of the singers of ancient Scandinavia,
must spoil his verse for us. Yet it
is well
to remember that in his own lifetime,
not
his natural prose, but his artificial
poetry
was famous throughout the North.
Snorri's greatest work is undoubtedly
the
Heimskringla.[1] Beginning with a rationalized
account of the founding of Northern
civilization
by the ancient gods, he proceeds through
heroic legend to the historical period,
and
follows the careers of his heroes on
the
throne, in Eastern courts and camps,
or on
forays in distant lands, from the earliest
times to the reign of Sverrir, who
came to
the throne in 1184, five years after
the
author's birth.
"The materials at Snorri's disposal,"
says Magnusson,[2] "were: oral
tradition;
written genealogical records; old songs
or
narrative lays such as Thiodolf's Tale[3]
of the Ynglings and Eyvind's Haloga
Tale;
poems of court poets, i. e., historic
songs,
which people knew by heart all from
the days
of Hairfair down to Snorri's own time.
'And
most store,' he says, 'we set by that
which
said in such songs as were sung before
the
chiefs themselves or the sons of them;
and
we hold all that true which is found
in these
songs concerning their wayfarings and
their
battles.' Of
[1. An excellent description and classification
of the MSS. may be found in The Saga
Library,
vol. vi, Introductory, pp. lxxiv-lxxvi.
For
Snorri's sources consult pp. lxxvi
ff.
2. Ibid., p. lxxxvi.
3. Tal is used here in the sense of
an enumeration
(of ancestors); hence, a genealogy.]
{p. xiv}
the written prose sources he drew upon
he
only mentions Ari the Learned's 'book,'
.
. . probably, as it seems to us, because
in the statements of that work he had
as
implicit a faith as in the other sources
he mentions, and found reason to alter
nothing
therein, while the sources he does
not mention
he silently criticises throughout,
rejecting
or altering them according as his critical
faculty dictated.
"Before Snorri's time there existed
only . . . separate, disjointed biographical
monographs on Norwegian kings, written
on
the model of the family sagas of Iceland.
Snorri's was a more ambitious task.
Discerning
that the course of life is determined
by
cause and effect, and that in the lives
of
kings widely ramified interests, national
and dynastic, come into play, he conceived
a new idea of saga-writing: the seed
of cause
sown in the preceding must yield its
crop
of effect in the succeeding reign.
This the
writer of lives of kings must bear
in mind.
And so Snorri addresses himself to
writing
the first pragmatic history ever penned
many
Teutonic vernacular--the Heimskringla."
The evidence for Snorri's authorship
of Heimskringla
is not conclusive; but Vigfússon's
demonstration
is accepted by most scholars.[1] We
may safely
assume, apart from the general tendency
of
the external evidence, that one and
the same
author must have written the histories
and
the Prose Edda. A comparison of the
names
of skalds and skaldic poems mentioned
in
both works will show that the author
of each
had a wide acquaintance with the conventional
poetic literature of Scandinavia, particularly
of Iceland, and that, if we suppose
two distinct
authors, both men had almost precisely
the
same poetic equipment. Each
[1. See Sturlunga Saga, vol. i, Proleg.,
pp. lxxv ff. The limitations of an
introduction
do not permit an abstract of the discussion
in this place.]
{p. xv}
of the works under consideration begins
with
a rationalization of the Odinic myths,
and
reveals an identity of attitude toward
the
ancient faith. Furthermore, the careful
reader
will be charmed with the sinewy style
of
both the Heimskringla and the Edda,
and will
be obliged to admit the close similarity
between them in structure and in expression.
Finally, Vigfússon has shown that they
exhibit
occasionally a remarkable identity
of phrase.[1]
The Prose Edda is undoubtedly by Snorri.
It is preserved in three primary manuscripts:
Codex Regius, early fourteenth century;
Codex
Wormianus, fourteenth century, named
from
Ole Worm, from whose hands it passed,
in
1706, into the hands of Arni Magnússon;
and
Codex Upsaliensis, about 1300, perhaps
a
direct copy of Snorri's own text. This
last
manuscript, and also the Arnamagnćan
vellum
No. 748, which preserves a portion
of the
text, testify unmistakably to Snorri's
authorship;
the Codex even gives, in detail, the
subjects
of the three divisions of the book.
These three divisions, but for the
evidence
of the manuscripts, might seem to afford
ground for assuming plural authorship.
The
first part, the Gylfaginning, or Beguiling
of Gylfi, is an epitome of Odinic mythology,
cast in the form of a dialogue between
Gylfi,
a legendary Swedish king, and the triune
Odin. Snorri, though a Christian, tells
the
old pagan tales with obvious-relish,
and
often, in the enthusiasm of the true
antiquary,
rises to magnificent heights. Ever
and again
he fortifies his narrative with citations
from the Poetic Edda, the great treasure-house
of Scandinavian mythological and heroic
poetry.
One passes from Gylfaginning to Skáldskaparmál
with
[1. See Sturlunga Saga, vol. i, Proleg.
pp.
lxxvii, and note.]
{p. xvi}
very little shock, in spite of the
great
difference in subject and treatment)
which
the author has attempted, rather skilfully,
to modulate through a second dialogue.
The
questioner this time is one Ćgir; and
replies
are made by the god Bragi, famed for
eloquence
and the gift of poetic expression.
This intermediate
dialogue, called Bragarćdur, or Bragi's
Discourses,
strikes the keynote of the entire book,
and
really reconciles the first section
to the
second and third, whose dissimilarity
to
Gylfaginning have led some scholars
to believe
that one or the other is not Snorri's
work.
The god relates several adventures
of the
Ćsir of the same character as those
recounted
in Gylfaginning, and concludes with
a myth
concerning the origin of the poetic
art.
From this point on, barely maintaining
the
fiction of the dialogue, Snorri makes
his
work a treatise on the conventional
vocabulary
and phraseology of skaldship, for the
guidance
of young skalds.
The third section of the Edda is the
Háttatal,
or Enumeration of Metres, and combines
three
separate songs of praise: one on King
Hákon,
a second on Skúli Bárdsson, the King's
father-in-law
and most powerful vassal, and a third
celebrating
both. Each of the hundred and two stanzas
of the work belongs to a distinct metric
type or subtype, and between stanzas
Snorri
has inserted definitions, occasionally
longer
notes, or comments.
We are now in a position to see the
purpose
and the artistic unity of the Prose
Edda:
the entire work is a textbook for apprentice
poets. Gylfaginning, conceived in the
true
antiquarian spirit, supplies the mythological
and legendary background which, in
the Christian
age that had superseded the vivid old
heathen
days, a young man might not know or
might
avoid. "Do not lose sight of these
{p. xvii}
splendid tales of the fathers,"
Snorri,
by implication, says to the youthful
bard;
"but remember always that these
old
legends are to be used to point a moral
or
adorn a tale, and not to be believed,
or
to be altered without authority of
ancient
skalds who knew them. Belief is sin;
tampering
with tradition is a crime against scholarship."
The second and third sections, Skáldskaparmál
and Háttatal, offer the rules of composition,
and drive them home by means of models
drawn,
in the one case, from acknowledged
masters
of the craft, in the other, by the
example
of a complete skaldic trilogy, the
work of
a man who was accepted by his own time
as
a worthy successor of Bragi, Kormákr,
and
Einarr. A needed transition from the
literary
to the technical portion of the book
is supplied
by Bragarćdur, which narrates, in the
same
spirit as Gylfaginning, further useful
tales,
and concludes with a mythological account
of the skaldic art.
Even the Prologue, which many scholars
consider
spurious, is an integral part of the
work--a
fact established by Snorri's single
address,
in the character of the author, to
beginners.
In this apostrophe he refers to the
Prologue:
"Remember, these tales are to
be used
only as Chief Skalds have used them,
and
must be revered as ancient tradition,
but
are neither to be believed nor to be
tampered
with. Regard them as I have indicated
at
the beginning of this book." The
beginning
of the book is a summary of the Biblical
story of the Creation and Deluge, followed
by a rationalized account of the rise
of
the ancient pagan faith, according
to which
the old gods appear, not as deities,
but
as men.
The word "Edda," as applied
to
the whole work, has long furnished
scholars
with material for disputation. The
{p. xviii}
different theories regarding it need
not
be re-stated here. It is the translator's
personal opinion that Magnússon's etymology,
if not established, is at least the
most
satisfactory one likely to be offered.
Magnússon'
points out that Snorri passed the interval
between his third and nineteenth years
at
Oddi, under the fostering of the grandson
of Sćmundr the Learned; that Sćmundr,
who
had studied at Paris, had founded a
school
at Oddi; that Snorri became the author
of
a book which was called Edda; and that
this
book contains, in its first section,
a prose
paraphrase of many of the songs from
the
Elder or Poetic Edda, together with
a number
of quotations from that work. Now the
Poetic
Edda was ascribed by its earliest recorded
possessor, Bishop Brynjólf Sveinsson,
to
Sćmundr; and while it is improbable
that
Sćmundr composed the poem, it is highly
probable
that it once formed part of his library
at
Oddi. There Snorri may have learned
to know
it; and we may assume that he gave
the prose
edition the, name of its poetical original.
That original, "the mother MS.,"
he thinks would naturally have been
called
"the book of, or at Oddi,"
which
would be expressed, in Icelandic, either
as "Oddabók," or as "Edda,"
following, in the latter case, accepted
linguistic
laws.
Snorri's familiarity with the Elder
or Poetic
Edda is demonstrated by his frequent
quotations
from Völuspá, Hávamál, Grímnismál,
Vafthrúdnismál,
Alsvinnsmál or Alvissmál, and Grottasöngr.
He knew Lokasenna as well, but confused
three
stanzas, apparently failing to remember
the
order
[1. Magnússon's theory, with a summary
of
all others in the field, was presented
in
a paper read before the Viking Club
on November
15, 1895, published in the Saga Book
of that
society, and separately printed at
London
in 1896.]
{p. xix}
in his original. One poem that he mentions
is lacking in the Poetic Edda as we
know
it: Heimdallargaldr, the Song or Incantation
of Heimdallr; moreover, he makes seventeen
citations from other poems which, although
lost to us, evidently formed portions
of
the original Eddic collections, or
belonged
to the same traditional stock. The
disappearance
of the manuscript which Snorri used
is a
great loss.
The first translation of the Prose
Edda was
published at Copenhagen in 1665, when
the
complete text appeared, with Latin
and Danish
interpretation. This was entitled Edda
islandorum
an. Chr. 1213 islandice conscripta
per Snorronem
Sturlć, nunc prinium islandice, danice,
et
latine ex antiquis codicibus in lucem
prodit
opera p. J. Resenii. The standard Danish
translation is that of R. Nyerup, Copenhagen,
1865. In 1746, J. Göransson printed
at Upsala
the first Swedish version, with a Latin
translation.
Göransson's original was the Codex
Upsaliensis.
Anders Uppström made an independent
translation
in 1859.
In 1755-56 there appeared at Copenhagen
a
work of the greatest importance for
the study
of Scandinavian antiquities in England:
Mallet's
Monumens de la Mythologie et de la
Poesie
des Celtes et Particuličrement des
Aciens
Scandinaves. This book, which comprised
a
general introduction on the ancient
Scandinavian
civilization, a translation of Gylfaginning,
and a synopsis of Skáldskaparmál and
Háttatal,
was turned into English by Bishop Percy,
under the title of Northern Antiquities.
Percy claimed to know Göransson's text
as
well as the French. Northern Antiquities
was published at London in 1770, and
was
reprinted at Edinburgh in 1809, with
additions
by Sir Walter Scott.
The best-known translation, and the
only
complete one which is at all trustworthy,
is that in Latin, combined, with
{p. xx}
the Icelandic text, in the Arnamagnćan
edition,
Copenhagen, 1848-87.
In 1842, G. W. Dasent, the translator
of
Njáls Saga, and a prominent scholar
in the
Scandinavian field, printed at Stockholm
his Prose or Younger Edda, which contains
a translation of Gylfaginning and of
the
narrative passages of Skáldskaparmál.
A similarly
incomplete English version was printed
at
Chicago, in 1880, by Rasmus B. Anderson.
Professor Anderson also edited a combined
translation of both Eddas, the Poetic
Edda
by Benjamin Thorpe, and the Prose Edda
by
I. A. Blackwell. Blackwell's translation,
which stops with Bragarćdur, had first
appeared
at London in 1847, together with an
abstract
of Eyrbyggia Saga by Scott. Samuel
Laing's
translation is likewise incomplete.
A French version of Gylfaginning, La
Fascination
de Gulfi, was published at Strassburg
by
F. G. Bergmann. A second edition appeared
in 1871.
So far as I can ascertain, the first
translation
into German was the work of Friedrich
Rühs,
Berlin, 1812. This contains a long
historical
introduction, and ends with the story
of
the Völsungs in Skáldskaparmál. Karl
Simrock's
Die Jüngere Edda, published in 1851
and reprinted
in 1855, although incomplete, is more
accurate
than any earlier translation, and is
remarkable
for its literary excellence. The most
scholarly
rendering into German is by Hugo Gering,
Leipzig, 1892, but unfortunately it
includes
only the narrative portions of the
book.
Until 1900, the best edition of Snorri's
Edda was by Thórleifr Jónsson, Copenhagen,
1875. This was superseded by Finnur
Jónsson's
splendid Danish edition. In 1907, Professor
Jónsson produced an Icelandic edition,
{p. xxi}
which forms volume xli of the Íslendinga
Sögur, published at Reykjavík.
It was fortunate for me that these
last two
editions appeared before I began my
work.
Professor Jónsson provided me with
an excellent
text; and, second in value only to
this,
with an index and an invaluable Icelandic
prose re-phrasing of the skaldic verses.
I regret exceedingly that the highly
technical
nature of Háttatal forbids translation
into
English. There are, to be sure, more
or less--usually
less--accurate translations into Scandinavian
and into Latin. Even in the excellent
Arnamagnćan
edition, many of the glosses are purely
conjectural;
and any attempt to convey into English
a
vocabulary which has no equivalent
in our
language must fail. Skáldskaparmál,
however,
is here presented, complete, for the
first
time in English.
To those who have helped me I wish
to express
my deepest appreciation. First of all,
to
Professor William Henry Schofield I
owe a
debt of gratitude which is more than
four
years old, and has increased beyond
computation.
Dr. Henry Goddard Leach, my first instructor
in Scandinavian literature, gave me
my greatest
single intellectual stimulus, and thereby
determined the current of my work.
Dr. Frederick
W. Lieder, of Harvard University, deserves
my thanks for his devoted assistance
in reading
proof, a task as dreary as it is essential.
I am also indebted for valuable suggestions
to Mr. H. W. Rabe, of Simmons College.
It is a great satisfaction to acknowledge
these debts, incurred in the course
of a
labor which has been my delight for
several
years. I should, however, do injustice
to
those who have aided me, as well as
to myself,
if I did
{p. xxii}
not assume full responsibility for
the faults
of the translation. Whatever these
may be,
I trust that the book may perform some
service
in bringing before the English reading
public
a greater portion of Snorri's classic
treatise
than has previously been accessible.
The
reader will perceive the value of the
Edda
if he will compare it, for legendary
and
antiquarian interest, with the Mabinogion,
and will also realize that the Edda
is a
masterpiece of style,--style that no
translator
can ever reproduce.
A. G. B.
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
July
1, 1916
PROLOGUE
IN the beginning God created heaven
and earth
and all those things which are in them;
and
last of all, two of human kind, Adam
and
Eve, from whom the races are descended.
And
their offspring multiplied among themselves
and were scattered throughout the earth.
But as time passed, the races of men
became
unlike in nature: some were good and
believed
on the right; but many more turned
after
the lusts of the world and slighted
God's
command. Wherefore, God drowned the
world
in a swelling of the sea, and all living
things, save them alone that were in
the
ark with Noah. After Noah's flood eight
of
mankind remained alive, who peopled
the earth;
and the races descended from them.
And it
was even as before: when the earth
was full
of folk and inhabited of many, then
all the
multitude of mankind began to love
greed,
wealth, and worldly honor, but neglected
the worship of God. Now accordingly
it came
to so evil a pass that they would not
name
God; and who then could tell their
sons of
God's mighty wonders? Thus it happened
that
they lost the name of God; and throughout
the wideness of the world the man was
not
found who could distinguish in aught
the
trace of his Creator. But not the less
did
God bestow upon them the gifts of the
earth:
wealth and happiness, for their enjoyment
in the world; He increased also their
wisdom,
so that they knew all earthly matters,
and
every phase of whatsoever they might
see
in the air and on the earth.
One thing they wondered and pondered
over:
what it might mean, that the earth
and the
beasts and the birds had one nature
in some
ways, and yet were unlike in manner
of
{p. 4}
life. In this was their nature one:
that
the earth was cleft into lofty mountain-peaks,
wherein water spurted up, and it was
not
needful to dig longer for water there
than
in the deep valleys; so it is also
with beasts
and birds: it is equally far to the
blood
in the head and the feet. Another quality
of the earth is, that in each year
grass
and flowers grow upon the earth, and
in the
same year all that growth falls away
and
withers; it is even so with beasts
and birds:
hair and feathers grow and fall away
each
year. This is the third nature of the
earth,
that when it is opened and dug up,
the grass
grows straightway on the soil which
is uppermost
on the earth. Boulders and stones they
likened
to the teeth and bones of living beings.
Thus they recognized that the earth
was quick,
and had life with some manner of nature
of
its own; and they understood that she
was
wondrous old in years and mighty in
kind:
she nourished all that lived, and she
took
to herself all that died. Therefore
they
gave her a name, and traced the number
of
their generations from her. The same
thing,
moreover, they learned from their aged
kinsmen:
that many hundreds of years have been
numbered
since the same earth yet was, and the
same
sun and stars of the heavens; but the
courses
of these were unequal, some having
a longer
course, and some a shorter.
From things like these the thought
stirred
within them that there might be some
governor
of the stars of heaven: one who might
order
their courses after his will; and that
he
must be very strong and full of might.
This
also they held to be true: that if
he swayed
the chief things of creation, he must
have
been before the stars of heaven; and
they
saw that if he ruled the courses of
the heavenly
bodies, he must also govern the shining
of
the sun, and the dews of the air, and
the
fruits of the earth, whatsoever grows
{p. 5}
upon it; and in like manner the winds
of
the air and the storms of the sea.
They knew
not yet where his kingdom was; but
this they
believed: that he ruled all things
on earth
and in the sky, the great stars also
of the
heaven, and the winds of the sea. Wherefore,
not only to tell of this fittingly,
but also
that they might fasten it in memory,
they
gave names out of their own minds to
all
things. This belief of theirs has changed
in many ways, according as the peoples
drifted
asunder and their tongues became severed
one from another. But all things they
discerned
with the wisdom of the earth, for the
understanding
of the spirit was not given to them;
this
they perceived, that all things were
fashioned
of some essence.
II
The world was divided into three parts:
from
the south, extending into the west
and bordering
on the Mediterranean Sea,--all this
part
was called Africa, the southern quarter
of
which is hot, so that it is parched
with
the sun. The second part, from west
to north
and bordering on the ocean, is called
Európá
or Eneá; its northern part is so cold
that
no grass grows upon it, and no man
dwells
there. From the north and all down
over the
eastern part, even to the south, is
called
Asia. In that region of the world is
all
fairness and pride, and the fruits
of the
earth's increase, gold and jewels.
There
also is the centre of the earth; and
even
as the land there is lovelier and better
in every way than in other places,
so also
were the sons of men there most favored
with
all goodly gifts: wisdom, and strength
of
the body, beauty, and all manner of
knowledge.
{p. 6}
III
Near the earth's centre was made that
goodliest
of homes and haunts that ever have
been,
which is called Troy, even that which
we
call Turkland. This abode was much
more gloriously
made than others, and fashioned with
more
skill of craftsmanship in manifold
wise,
both in luxury and in the wealth which
was
there in abundance. There were twelve
kingdoms
and one High King, and many sovereignties
belonged to each kingdom; in the stronghold
were twelve chieftains. These chieftains
were in every manly part greatly above
other
men that have ever been in the world.
One
king among them was called Múnón or
Mennón;
and he was wedded to the daughter of
the
High King Priam, her who was called
Tróán;
they had a child named Trór, whom we
call
Thor. He was fostered in Thrace by
a certain
war-duke called Lóríkus; but when he
was
ten winters old he took unto him the
weapons
of his father. He was as goodly to
look upon,
when he came among other men, as the
ivory
that is inlaid in oak; his hair was
fairer
than gold. When he was twelve winters
old
he had his full measure of strength;
then
he lifted clear of the earth ten bear-skins
all at one time; and then he slew Duke
Lóríkus,
his foster-father, and with him his
wife
Lórá, or Glórá, and took into his own
hands
the realm of Thrace, which we call
Thrúdheim.
Then he went forth far and wide over
the
lands, and sought out every quarter
of the
earth, overcoming alone all berserks
and
giants, and one dragon, greatest of
all dragons,
and many beasts. In the northern half
of
his kingdom he found the prophetess
that
is called Síbil, whom we call Sif,
and wedded
her. The lineage of Sif I cannot tell;
she
was fairest of all women,
{p. 7}
and her hair was like gold. Their son
was
Lóridi, who resembled his father; his
son
was Einridi, his son Vingethor, his
son Vingener,
his son Móda, his son Magi, his son
Seskef,
his son Bedvig, his son Athra (whom
we call
Annarr), his son Ítermann, his son
Heremód,
his son Skjaldun (whom we call Skjöld),
his
son Bjáf (whom we call Bjárr), his
son Ját,
his son Gudólfr, his son Finn, his
son Fríallaf
(whom we call Fridleifr); his son was
he
who is named Vóden, whom we call Odin:
he
was a man far-famed for wisdom and
every
accomplishment. His wife was Frígídá,
whom
we call Frigg.
IV
Odin had second sight, and his wife
also;
and from their foreknowledge he found
that
his name should be exalted in the northern
part of the world and glorified above
the
fame of all other kings. Therefore,
he made
ready to journey out of Turkland, and
was
accompanied by a great multitude of
people,
young folk and old, men and women;
and they
had with them much goods of great price.
And wherever they went over the lands
of
the earth, many glorious things were
spoken
of them, so that they were held more
like
gods than men. They made no end to
their
journeying till they were come north
into
the land that is now called Saxland;
there
Odin tarried for a long space, and
took the
land into his own hand, far and wide.
In that land Odin set up three of his
sons
for land-wardens. One was named Vegdeg:
he
was a mighty king and ruled over East
Saxland;
his son was Vitgils; his sons were
Vitta,
Heingistr's father, and Sigarr, father
of
Svebdeg, whom we call Svipdagr. The
second
son of Odin was
{p. 8}
Beldeg, whom we call Baldr: he had
the land
which is now called Westphalia. His
son was
Brandr, his son Frjódigar, (whom we
call
Fródi), his son Freóvin, his son Uvigg,
his
son Gevis (whom we call Gave). Odin's
third
son is named Sigi, his son Rerir. These
the
forefathers ruled over what is now
called
Frankland; and thence is descended
the house
known as Völsungs. From all these are
sprung
many and great houses.
Then Odin began his way northward,
and came
into the land which they called Reidgothland;
and in that land he took possession
of all
that pleased him. He set up over the
land
that son of his called Skjöldr, whose
son
was Fridleifr;--and thence descends
the house
of the Skjöldungs: these are the kings
of
the Danes. And what was then called
Reidgothland
is now called Jutland.
V
After that he went northward, where
the land
is called Sweden; the king there was
named
Gylfi. When the king learned of the
coming
of those men of Asia, who were called
Ćsir,
he went to meet them, and made offer
to them
that Odin should have such power in
his realm
as he himself wielded. And such well-being
followed ever upon their footsteps,
that
in whatsoever lands they dwelt were
good
seasons and peace; and all believed
that
they caused these things, for the lords
of
the land perceived that they were unlike
other men whom they had seen, both
in fairness
and also in wisdom.
The fields and the choice lands in
that place
seemed fair to Odin, and he chose for
himself
the site of a city which is now called
Sigtún.
There he established chieftains in
the
{p. 9}
fashion which had prevailed in Troy;
he set
up also twelve head-men to be doomsmen
over
the people and to judge the laws of
the land;
and he ordained also all laws as, there
had
been before, in Troy, and according
to the
customs of the Turks. After that he
went
into the north, until he was stopped
by the
sea, which men thought lay around all
the
lands of the earth; and there he set
his
son over this kingdom, which is now
called
Norway. This king was Sćmingr; the
kings
of Norway trace their lineage from
him, and
so do also the jarls and the other
mighty
men, as is said in the Háleygjatal.
Odin
had with him one of his sons called
Yngvi,
who was king in Sweden after him; and
those
houses come from him that are named
Ynglings.
The Ćsir took wives of the land for
themselves,
and some also for their sons; and these
kindreds
became many in number, so that throughout
Saxland, and thence all over the region
of
the north, they spread out until their
tongue,
even the speech of the men of Asia,
was the
native tongue over all these lands.
Therefore
men think that they can perceive, from
their
forefathers' names which are written
down,
that those names belonged to this tongue,
and that the Ćsir brought the tongue
hither
into the northern region, into Norway
and
into Sweden, into Denmark and into
Saxland.
But in England there are ancient lists
of
land-names and place-names which may
show
that these names came from another
tongue
than this.
TO WILLIAM HENRY SCHOFIELD WHO MADE
THE WORK
POSSIBLE THE TRANSLATOR RENDERS THE
TRIBUTE
OF THIS BOOK
|
Evans Experientialism 
