Fjolsvinnsmol: The Lay of Fjolsvith

Henry Adams Bellows's notes to his translation (1923; Project Gutenberg #73533).

1. Stanza 1 Svipdag (“Swift Day”): the names of the speakers are lacking in the manuscripts.
2. Stanza 3 The woman: Svipdag’s stepmother, who is responsible for his search for Mengloth (“Necklace-Glad”). This name has suggested that Mengloth is really Frigg, possessor of the famous Brisings’ necklace, or else Freyja (cf. Lokasenna, 20, note).
3. Stanza 6 For this catalogue of charms (stanzas 6–14) cf. the Ljothatal (Hovamol, 147–165). Rani and Rind: the manuscripts have these words in inverse relation; I have followed Neckel’s emendation. Rind was the giantess who became the mother of Vali, Othin’s son, the one-night-old avenger of Baldr (cf. Voluspo, 33–34, and Baldrs Draumar, 11 and note). Rani is presumably Othin, who, according to a skaldic poem, won Rind by magic.
4. Stanza 7 Urth: one of the three Norns, or Fates; cf. Voluspo, 20.
5. Stanza 8 Horn and Ruth: these two rivers, here used merely to symbolize all dangerous streams, are not included in the catalogue of rivers given in Grimnismol, 27–29, for which reason some editors have changed the names to Hron and Hrith.
6. Stanza 10 This stanza is a close parallel to Hovamol, 150, and the fifth line may well be an interpolation from line 4 of that stanza.
7. Stanza 13 A dead Christian woman: this passage has distressed many editors, who have sought to emend the text so as to make it mean simply “a dead witch.” The fact seems to be, however, that this particular charm was composed at a time when Christians were regarded by all conservative pagans as emissaries of darkness. A dead woman’s curse would naturally be more potent, whether she was Christian or otherwise, than a living one’s. Presumably this charm is much older than the poem in which it here stands.
8. Stanza 16 At this point Groa’s song ends, and Svipdag, thus fortified, goes to seek Mengloth. All the link that is needed between the poems is approximately this: “Then Svipdag searched long for Mengloth, and at last he came to a great house set all about with flames. And before the house there was a giant.”
9. Stanza 17 Before the house | he beheld one coming To the home of the giants high. Svipdag spake: “What giant is here, | in front of the house, And around him fires are flaming?” Fjolsvith spake:
10. Stanza 17 Most editors have here begun a new series of stanza numbers, but if the Grougaldr and the Fjolsvinnsmol are to be considered as a single poem, it seems more reasonable to continue the stanza numbers consecutively. Bugge thinks a stanza has been lost before 17, including Fjolsvith’s name, so that the “he” in line 1 might have something to refer to. However, just such a prose link as I have suggested in the note on stanza 16 would serve the purpose. Editors have suggested various rearrangements in the lines of stanzas 17–19. The substance, however, is clear enough. The giant Fjolsvith (“Much-Wise”), the warder of the house in which Mengloth dwells, sees Svipdag coming and stops him with the customary threats. The assignment of the speeches in stanzas 17–20, in the absence of any indications in the manuscripts, is more or less guesswork.
11. Stanza 18 “What seekest thou here? | for what is thy search? What, friendless one, fain wouldst thou know? By the ways so wet | must thou wander hence, For, weakling, no home hast thou here.” Svipdag spake:
12. Stanza 19 “What giant is here, | in front of the house, To the wayfarer welcome denying?” Fjolsvith spake: “Greeting full fair | thou never shalt find, So hence shalt thou get thee home.
13. Stanza 20 “Fjolsvith am I, | and wise am I found, But miserly am I with meat; Thou never shalt enter | within the house,— Go forth like a wolf on thy way!” Svipdag spake:
14. Stanza 21 “Few from the joy | of their eyes will go forth, When the sight of their loves they seek; Full bright are the gates | of the golden hall, And a home shall I here enjoy.” Fjolsvith spake:
15. Stanza 22 “Tell me now, fellow, | what father thou hast, And the kindred of whom thou camst.” Svipdag spake: “Vindkald am I, | and Varkald’s son, And Fjolkald his father was.
16. Stanza 22 Vindkald (“Wind-Cold”), Varkald (“Cold of Early Spring”) and Fjolkald (“Much Cold”): Svipdag apparently seeks to persuade Fjolsvith that he belongs to the frost giants.
17. Stanza 23 “Now answer me, Fjolsvith, | the question I ask, For now the truth would I know: Who is it that holds | and has for his own The rule of the hall so rich?” Fjolsvith spake:
18. Stanza 24 “Mengloth is she, | her mother bore her To the son of Svafrthorin; She is it that holds | and has for her own The rule of the hall so rich.” Svipdag spake:
19. Stanza 24 Svafrthorin: who he was, or what his name means, or who his son was, are all unknown.
20. Stanza 25 “Now answer me, Fjolsvith, | the question I ask, For now the truth would I know: What call they the gate? | for among the gods Ne’er saw man so grim a sight.” Fjolsvith spake:
21. Stanza 26 “Thrymgjol they call it; | ’twas made by the three, The sons of Solblindi; And fast as a fetter | the farer it holds, Whoever shall lift the latch.” Svipdag spake:
22. Stanza 26 Thrymgjol (“Loud-Clanging”): this gate, like the gate of the dead, shuts so fast as to trap those who attempt to use it (cf. Sigurtharkvitha en skamma, 68 and note). It was made by the dwarfs, sons of Solblindi (“Sun-Blinded”), the traditional craftsmen, who could not endure the light of day.
23. Stanza 27 “Now answer me, Fjolsvith, | the question I ask, For now the truth would I know: What call they the house? | for no man beheld ‘Mongst the gods so grim a sight.” Fjolsvith spake:
24. Stanza 28 “Gastropnir is it, | of old I made it From the limbs of Leirbrimir; I braced it so strongly | that fast it shall stand So long as the world shall last.” Svipdag spake:
25. Stanza 28 Gastropnir: “Guest-Crusher.” Leirbrimir’s (“Clay-Giant’s”) limbs: a poetic circumlocution for “clay”; cf. the description of the making of earth from the body of the giant Ymir, Vafthruthnismol, 21.
26. Stanza 29 “Now answer me, Fjolsvith, | the question I ask, For now the truth would I know: What call they the tree | that casts abroad Its limbs o’er every land?” Fjolsvith spake:
27. Stanza 30 “Mimameith its name, | and no man knows What root beneath it runs; And few can guess | what shall fell the tree, For fire nor iron shall fell it.” Svipdag spake:
28. Stanza 30 Mimameith (“Mimir’s Tree”): the ash Yggdrasil, that overshadows the whole world. The well of Mimir was situated at its base; cf. Voluspo, 27–29.
29. Stanza 31 “Now answer me, Fjolsvith, | the question I ask, For now the truth would I know: What grows from the seed | of the tree so great, That fire nor iron shall fell?” Fjolsvith spake:
30. Stanza 32 “Women, sick | with child, shall seek Its fruit to the flames to bear; Then out shall come | what within was hid, And so is it mighty with men.” Svipdag spake:
31. Stanza 32 Gering suggests that two stanzas have been lost between stanzas 15 and 16, but the giant’s answer fits the question quite well enough. The fruit of Yggdrasil, when cooked, is here assumed to have the power of assuring safe childbirth.
32. Stanza 33 “Now answer me, Fjolsvith, | the question I ask, For now the truth would I know: What cock is he | on the highest bough, That glitters all with gold?” Fjolsvith spake:
33. Stanza 34 “Vithofnir his name, | and now he shines Like lightning on Mimameith’s limbs; And great is the trouble | with which he grieves Both Surt and Sinmora.” Svipdag spake:
34. Stanza 34 Vithofnir (“Tree-Snake”): apparently identical with either the cock Gollinkambi (cf. Voluspo, 43) or Fjalar (cf. Voluspo, 42), the former of which wakes the gods to battle, and the latter the giants. Surt: the giant mentioned in Voluspo, 52, as ruler of the fire-world; here used to represent the giants in general, who are constantly in terror of the cock’s eternal watchfulness. Sinmora: presumably Surt’s wife, the giantess who possesses the weapon by which alone the cock Vithofnir may be slain.
35. Stanza 35 “Now answer me, Fjolsvith, | the question I ask, For now the truth would I know: What call they the hounds, | that before the house So fierce and angry are?” Fjolsvith spake:
36. Stanza 35 The last two lines have been variously emended.
37. Stanza 36 “Gif call they one, | and Geri the other, If now the truth thou wouldst know; Great they are, | and their might will grow, Till the gods to death are doomed.” Svipdag spake:
38. Stanza 36 Gif and Geri: both names signify “Greedy.” The first part of line 3 is conjectural; the manuscripts indicate the word “eleven,” which clearly fails to make sense.
39. Stanza 37 “Now answer me, Fjolsvith, | the question I ask, For now the truth would I know: May no man hope | the house to enter, While the hungry hounds are sleeping?” Fjolsvith spake:
40. Stanza 38 “Together they sleep not, | for so was it fixed When the guard to them was given; One sleeps by night, | the next by day, So no man may enter ever.” Svipdag spake:
41. Stanza 39 “Now answer me, Fjolsvith, | the question I ask, For now the truth would I know: Is there no meat | that men may give them, And leap within while they eat?” Fjolsvith spake:
42. Stanza 40 “Two wing-joints there be | in Vithofnir’s body, If now the truth thou wouldst know; That alone is the meat | that men may give them, And leap within while they eat.” Svipdag spake:
43. Stanza 41 “Now answer me, Fjolsvith, | the question I ask, For now the truth would I know: What weapon can send | Vithofnir to seek The house of Hel below?” Fjolsvith spake:
44. Stanza 42 “Lævatein is there, | that Lopt with runes Once made by the doors of death; In Lægjarn’s chest | by Sinmora lies it, And nine locks fasten it firm.” Svipdag spake:
45. Stanza 42 Lævatein (“Wounding Wand”): the manuscripts differ as to the form of this name. The suggestion that the reference is to the mistletoe with which Baldr was killed seems hardly reasonable. Lopt: Loki. Lægjarn (“Lover of Ill”): Loki; cf. Voluspo, 35, where the term appears as an adjective applied to Loki. This is Falk’s emendation for the manuscripts’ “Sægjarn,” meaning “Sea Lover.” Sinmora: cf. stanza 34.
46. Stanza 43 “Now answer me, Fjolsvith, | the question I ask, For now the truth would I know: May a man come thence | who thither goes, And tries the sword to take?” Fjolsvith spake:
47. Stanza 44 “Thence may he come | who thither goes, And tries the sword to take, If with him he carries | what few can win, To give to the goddess of gold.” Svipdag spake:
48. Stanza 44 Goddess of gold: poetic circumlocution for “woman,” here meaning Sinmora.
49. Stanza 45 “Now answer me, Fjolsvith, | the question I ask, For now the truth would I know: What treasure is there | that men may take To rejoice the giantess pale?” Fjolsvith spake:
50. Stanza 46 “The sickle bright | in thy wallet bear, Mid Vithofnir’s feathers found; To Sinmora give it, | and then shall she grant That the weapon by thee be won.” Svipdag spake:
51. Stanza 46 Sickle: i.e., tail feather. With this the circle of impossibilities is completed. To get past the dogs, they must be fed with the wing-joints of the cock Vithofnir; the cock can be killed only with the sword in Sinmora’s possession, and Sinmora will give up the sword only in return for the tail feather of the cock.
52. Stanza 47 “Now answer me, Fjolsvith, | the question I ask, For now the truth would I know: What call they the hall, | encompassed here With flickering magic flames?” Fjolsvith spake:
53. Stanza 48 “Lyr is it called, | and long it shall On the tip of a spear-point tremble; Of the noble house | mankind has heard, But more has it never known.” Svipdag spake:
54. Stanza 48 Lyr (“Heat-Holding”): just what the spear-point reference means is not altogether clear. Presumably it refers to the way in which the glowing brightness of the lofty hall makes it seem to quiver and turn in the air, but the tradition, never baffled by physical laws, may have actually balanced the whole building on a single point to add to the difficulties of entrance.
55. Stanza 49 “Now answer me, Fjolsvith, | the question I ask, For now the truth would I know: What one of the gods | has made so great The hall I behold within?” Fjolsvith spake:
56. Stanza 50 “Uni and Iri, | Bari and Jari, Var and Vegdrasil, Dori and Ori, | Delling, and there Was Loki, the fear of the folk.” Svipdag spake:
57. Stanza 50 Loki, the one god named, was the builder of the hall, with the aid of the nine dwarfs. Jari, Dori, and Ori appear in the Voluspo catalogue of the dwarfs (stanzas 13 and 15); Delling appears in Hovamol, 161, and Vafthruthnismol, 25, in the latter case, however, the name quite possibly referring to some one else. The other dwarfs’ names do not appear elsewhere. The manuscripts differ as to the forms of many of these names.
58. Stanza 51 “Now answer me, Fjolsvith, | the question I ask, For now the truth would I know: What call they the mountain | on which the maid Is lying so lovely to see?” Fjolsvith spake: