Skirnismol: The Ballad of Skirnir

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

1. Stanza 1 “Go now, Skirnir! | and seek to gain Speech from my son; And answer to win, | for whom the wise one Is mightily moved.” Skirnir spake:
2. Stanza 1 My son: both manuscripts, and many editors, have “our son,” which, of course, goes with the introduction of Skathi in the prose. As the stanza is clearly addressed to Skirnir, the change of pronouns seems justified. The same confusion occurs in stanza 2, where Skirnir in the manuscripts is made to speak of Freyr as “your son” (plural). The plural pronoun in the original involves a metrical error, which is corrected by the emendation.
3. Stanza 2 “Ill words do I now | await from thy son, If I seek to get speech with him, And answer to win, | for whom the wise one Is mightily moved.” Skirnir spake:
4. Stanza 3 “Speak prithee, Freyr, | foremost of the gods, For now I fain would know; Why sittest thou here | in the wide halls, Days long, my prince, alone?” Freyr spake:
5. Stanza 4 “How shall I tell thee, | thou hero young, Of all my grief so great? Though every day | the elfbeam dawns, It lights my longing never.” Skirnir spake:
6. Stanza 4 Elfbeam: the sun, so called because its rays were fatal to elves and dwarfs; cf. Alvissmol, 35.
7. Stanza 5 “Thy longings, methinks, | are not so large That thou mayst not tell them to me; Since in days of yore | we were young together, We two might each other trust.” Freyr spake:
8. Stanza 6 “From Gymir’s house | I beheld go forth A maiden dear to me; Her arms glittered, | and from their gleam Shone all the sea and sky.
9. Stanza 6 Gymir: a mountain-giant, husband of Aurbotha, and father of Gerth, fairest among women. This is all Snorri tells of him in his paraphrase of the story.
10. Stanza 6 Lines 2 and 3 may have been expanded out of a single line running approximately “Ye gods and Suttung’s sons.” Suttung: concerning this giant cf. Hovamol, 104 and note.
11. Stanza 7 “To me more dear | than in days of old Was ever maiden to man; But no one of gods | or elves will grant That we both together should be.” Skirnir spake:
12. Stanza 7 Snorri’s paraphrase of the poem is sufficiently close so that his addition of another sentence to Freyr’s speech makes it probable that a stanza has dropped out between 7 and 8. This has been tentatively reconstructed, thus: “Hither to me | shalt thou bring the maid, / And home shalt thou lead her here, / If her father wills it | or wills it not, / And good reward shalt thou get.” Finn Magnusen detected the probable omission of a stanza here as early as 1821.
13. Stanza 8 “Then give me the horse | that goes through the dark And magic flickering flames; And the sword as well | that fights of itself Against the giants grim.” Freyr spake:
14. Stanza 8 The sword: Freyr’s gift of his sword to Skirnir eventually proves fatal, for at the last battle, when Freyr is attacked by Beli, whom he kills bare-handed, and later when the fire-demon, Surt, slays him in turn, he is weaponless; cf. Voluspo, 53 and note. Against the giants grim: the condition of this line makes it seem like an error in copying, and it is possible that it should be identical with the fourth line of the next stanza.
15. Stanza 9 “The horse will I give thee | that goes through the dark And magic flickering flames, And the sword as well | that will fight of itself If a worthy hero wields it.” Skirnir spake to the horse:
16. Stanza 10 “Dark is it without, | and I deem it time To fare through the wild fells, (To fare through the giants’ fastness;) We shall both come back, | or us both together The terrible giant will take.” Skirnir rode into Jotunheim to Gymir’s house. There were fierce dogs bound before the gate of the fence which was around Gerth’s hall. He rode to where a herdsman sat on a hill, and said:
17. Stanza 10 Some editors reject line 3 as spurious.
18. Stanza 11 “Tell me, herdsman, | sitting on the hill, And watching all the ways, How may I win | a word with the maid Past the hounds of Gymir here?” The herdsman spake:
19. Stanza 12 “Art thou doomed to die | or already dead, Thou horseman that ridest hither? Barred from speech | shalt thou ever be With Gymir’s daughter good.” Skirnir spake:
20. Stanza 12 Line 2 is in neither manuscript, and no gap is indicated. I have followed Grundtvig’s conjectural emendation.
21. Stanza 13 “Boldness is better | than plaints can be For him whose feet must fare; To a destined day | has mine age been doomed, And my life’s span thereto laid.” Gerth spake:
22. Stanza 13 This stanza is almost exactly like many in the first part of the Hovamol, and may well have been a separate proverb. After this stanza the scene shifts to the interior of the house.
23. Stanza 14 “What noise is that | which now so loud I hear within our house? The ground shakes, | and the home of Gymir Around me trembles too.” The Serving-Maid spake:
24. Stanza 15 “One stands without | who has leapt from his steed, And lets his horse loose to graze;” . . . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gerth spake:
25. Stanza 15 No gap indicated in either manuscript. Bugge and Niedner have attempted emendations, while Hildebrand suggests that the last two lines of stanza 14 are spurious, 14, 1–2, and 15 thus forming a single stanza, which seems doubtful.
26. Stanza 16 “Bid the man come in, | and drink good mead Here within our hall; Though this I fear, | that there without My brother’s slayer stands.
27. Stanza 16 Brother’s slayer: perhaps the brother is Beli, slain by Freyr; the only other references are in Voluspo, 53, and in Snorri’s paraphrase of the Skirnismol, which merely says that Freyr’s gift of his sword to Skirnir “was the reason why he was weaponless when he met Beli, and he killed him bare-handed.” Skirnir himself seems never to have killed anybody.
28. Stanza 17 “Art thou of the elves | or the offspring of gods, Or of the wise Wanes? How camst thou alone | through the leaping flame Thus to behold our home?” Skirnir spake:
29. Stanza 17 Wise Wanes: cf. Voluspo, 21 and note.
30. Stanza 18 “I am not of the elves, | nor the offspring of gods, Nor of the wise Wanes; Though I came alone | through the leaping flame Thus to behold thy home.
31. Stanza 18 The Arnamagnæan Codex omits this stanza.
32. Stanza 19 “Eleven apples, | all of gold, Here will I give thee, Gerth, To buy thy troth | that Freyr shall be Deemed to be dearest to you.” Gerth spake:
33. Stanza 19 Apples: the apple was the symbol of fruitfulness, and also of eternal youth. According to Snorri, the goddess Ithun had charge of the apples which the gods ate whenever they felt themselves growing old.
34. Stanza 20 “I will not take | at any man’s wish These eleven apples ever; Nor shall Freyr and I | one dwelling find So long as we two live.” Skirnir spake:
35. Stanza 21 “Then do I bring thee | the ring that was burned Of old with Othin’s son; From it do eight | of like weight fall On every ninth night.” Gerth spake:
36. Stanza 21 Ring: the ring Draupnir (“Dropper”) was made by the dwarfs for Othin, who laid it on Baldr’s pyre when the latter’s corpse was burned (cf. Voluspo, 32 and note, and Baldrs Draumar). Baldr, however, sent the ring back to Othin from hell. How Freyr obtained it is nowhere stated. Andvari’s ring (Andvaranaut) had a similar power of creating gold; cf. Reginsmol, prose after stanza 4 and note. Lines 3 and 4 of this stanza, and the first two of stanza 22, are missing in the Arnamagnæan Codex.
37. Stanza 22 “The ring I wish not, | though burned it was Of old with Othin’s son; In Gymir’s home | is no lack of gold In the wealth my father wields.” Skirnir spake:
38. Stanza 23 “Seest thou, maiden, | this keen, bright sword That I hold here in my hand? Thy head from thy neck | shall I straightway hew, If thou wilt not do my will.” Gerth spake:
39. Stanza 24 “For no man’s sake | will I ever suffer To be thus moved by might; But gladly, methinks, | will Gymir seek To fight if he finds thee here.” Skirnir spake:
40. Stanza 25 “Seest thou, maiden, | this keen, bright sword That I hold here in my hand? Before its blade | the old giant bends,— Thy father is doomed to die.
41. Stanza 25 The first two lines are abbreviated in both manuscripts.
42. Stanza 26 “I strike thee, maid, | with my magic staff, To tame thee to work my will; There shalt thou go | where never again The sons of men shall see thee.
43. Stanza 26 With this stanza, bribes and threats having failed, Skirnir begins a curse which, by the power of his magic staff, is to fall on Gerth if she refuses Freyr.
44. Stanza 27 “On the eagle’s hill | shalt thou ever sit, And gaze on the gates of Hel; More loathsome to thee | than the light-hued snake To men, shall thy meat become.
45. Stanza 27 Eagle’s hill: the hill at the end of heaven, and consequently overlooking hell, where the giant Hræsvelg sits “in an eagle’s guise,” and makes the winds with his wings; cf. Vafthruthnismol, 37, also Voluspo, 50. The second line is faulty in both manuscripts; Hildebrand’s emendation corrects the error, but omits an effective touch; the manuscript line may be rendered “And look and hanker for hell.” The Arnamagnæan Codex breaks off with the fourth line of this stanza.
46. Stanza 28 “Fearful to see, | if thou comest forth, Hrimnir will stand and stare, (Men will marvel at thee;) More famed shalt thou grow | than the watchman of the gods! Peer forth, then, from thy prison.
47. Stanza 28 Hrimnir: a frost-giant, mentioned elsewhere only in Hyndluljoth,
48. Stanza 29 “Rage and longing, | fetters and wrath, Tears and torment are thine; Where thou sittest down | my doom is on thee Of heavy heart And double dole.
49. Stanza 29 Three nouns of doubtful meaning, which I have rendered rage, longing, and heart respectively, make the precise force of this stanza obscure. Niedner and Sijmons mark the entire stanza as interpolated, and Jonsson rejects line 5.
50. Stanza 30 “In the giants’ home | shall vile things harm thee Each day with evil deeds; Grief shalt thou get | instead of gladness, And sorrow to suffer with tears.
51. Stanza 30 In Regius and in nearly all the editions the first two lines of this stanza are followed by lines 3–5 of stanza 35. I have followed Niedner, Sijmons, and Gering. The two words here translated vile things are obscure; Gering renders the phrase simply “Kobolde.”
52. Stanza 31 “With three-headed giants | thou shalt dwell ever, Or never know a husband; (Let longing grip thee, | let wasting waste thee,—) Be like to the thistle | that in the loft Was cast and there was crushed.
53. Stanza 31 The confusion noted as to the preceding stanza, and a metrical error in the third line, have led to various rearrangements and emendations; line 3 certainly looks like an interpolation. Three-headed giants: concerning giants with numerous heads, cf. Vafthruthnismol, 33, and Hymiskvitha, 8.
54. Stanza 32 “I go to the wood, | and to the wet forest, To win a magic wand; . . . . . . . . | . . . . . . . . I won a magic wand.
55. Stanza 32 No gap indicated in the manuscript; Niedner makes the line here given as 4 the first half of line 3, and fills out the stanza thus: “with which I will tame you, / Maid, to work my will.” The whole stanza seems to be either interpolated or out of place; it would fit better after stanza 25.
56. Stanza 33 “Othin grows angry, | angered is the best of the gods, Freyr shall be thy foe, Most evil maid, | who the magic wrath Of gods hast got for thyself.
57. Stanza 33 Line 3 is probably spurious. Watchman of the gods: Heimdall; cf. Voluspo, 46.
58. Stanza 33 Jonsson marks this stanza as interpolated. The word translated most evil is another case of guesswork.
59. Stanza 34 “Give heed, frost-rulers, | hear it, giants, Sons of Suttung, And gods, ye too, How I forbid | and how I ban The meeting of men with the maid, (The joy of men with the maid.)
60. Stanza 34 Most editors reject line 3 as spurious, and some also reject line
61. Stanza 35 “Hrimgrimnir is he, | the giant who shall have thee In the depth by the doors of Hel; To the frost-giants’ halls | each day shalt thou fare, Crawling and craving in vain, (Crawling and having no hope.)
62. Stanza 35 Most editors combine lines 1–2 with stanza 36 (either with the first two lines thereof or the whole stanza), as lines 3–5 stand in the manuscript after line 2 of stanza 30. Hrimgrimnir (“The Frost-Shrouded”): a giant not elsewhere mentioned. Line 5, as a repetition of line 4, is probably a later addition.
63. Stanza 36 “Base wretches there | by the root of the tree Will hold for thee horns of filth; A fairer drink | shalt thou never find, Maid, to meet thy wish, (Maid, to meet my wish.)
64. Stanza 36 For the combination of this stanza with the preceding one, cf. note on stanza 35. The scribe clearly did not consider that the stanza began with line 1, as the first word thereof in the manuscript does not begin with a capital letter and has no period before it. The first word of line 3, however, is so marked. Line 5 may well be spurious.
65. Stanza 37 “I write thee a charm | and three runes therewith, Longing and madness and lust; But what I have writ | I may yet unwrite If I find a need therefor.” Gerth spake:
66. Stanza 37 Again the scribe seems to have been uncertain as to the stanza divisions. This time the first line is preceded by a period, but begins with a small letter. Many editors have made line 2 into two half-lines. A charm: literally, the rune Thurs (þ); the runic letters all had magic attributes; cf. Sigrdrifumol, 6–7 and notes.
67. Stanza 38 “Find welcome rather, | and with it take The frost-cup filled with mead; Though I did not believe | that I should so love Ever one of the Wanes.” Skirnir spake:
68. Stanza 39 “My tidings all | must I truly learn Ere homeward hence I ride: How soon thou wilt | with the mighty son Of Njorth a meeting make.” Gerth spake:
69. Stanza 40 “Barri there is, | which we both know well, A forest fair and still; And nine nights hence | to the son of Njorth Will Gerth there grant delight.” Then Skirnir rode home. Freyr stood without, and spoke to him, and asked for tidings:
70. Stanza 40 Barri: “The Leafy.”
71. Stanza 41 “Tell me, Skirnir, | ere thou take off the saddle, Or farest forward a step: What hast thou done | in the giants’ dwelling To make glad thee or me?” Skirnir spake:
72. Stanza 42 “Barri there is, | which we both know well, A forest fair and still; And nine nights hence | to the son of Njorth Will Gerth there grant delight.” Freyr spake:
73. Stanza 42 Abbreviated to initial letters in the manuscript.
74. Stanza 43 “Long is one night, | longer are two; How then shall I bear three? Often to me | has a month seemed less Than now half a night of desire.” NOTES Prose. Freyr: concerning his father, Njorth, and the race of the Wanes in general, cf. Voluspo, 21 and note. Snorri thus describes Njorth’s family: “Njorth begat two children in Noatun; the son was named Freyr, and the daughter Freyja; they were fair of aspect and mighty. Freyr is the noblest of the gods; he rules over rain and sunshine, and therewith the fruitfulness of the earth; it is well to call upon him for plenty and welfare, for he rules over wealth for mankind. Freyja is the noblest of the goddesses. When she rides to the fight, she has one-half of the slain, and Othin has half. When she goes on a journey, she drives her two cats, and sits in a cart. Love-songs please her well, and it is good to call on her in love-matters.” Hlithskjolf: Othin’s watch-tower; cf. Grimnismol, introductory prose. He said: both manuscripts have “Then Skathi said:” (Skathi was Njorth’s wife), but Bugge’s emendation, based on Snorri’s version, is doubtless correct.
75. Stanza 43 The superscription is lacking in Regius. Snorri quotes this one stanza in his prose paraphrase, Gylfaginning, chapter 37. The two versions are substantially the same, except that Snorri makes the first line read, “Long is one night, | long is the second.”