The Younger Edda; Also called Snorre's Edda, or The Prose Edda
But what will seem wonderful to you is that the sun has brought forth a
daughter not less fair than herself, and she rides in the heavenly
course of her mother, as is here said:
A daughter
Is born of the sun
Ere Fenrer takes her.
In her mother’s course
When the gods are dead
This maid shall ride.[75]
[Footnote 75: Elder Edda: Vafthrudner’s Lay, 47.]
And if you now can ask more questions, said Har to Ganglere, I know not
whence that power came to you. I have never heard any one tell further
the fate of the world. Make now the best use you can of what has been
told you.
59. Then Ganglere heard a terrible noise on all sides, and when he
looked about him he stood out-doors on a level plain. He saw neither
hall nor burg. He went his way and came back to his kingdom, and told
the tidings which he had seen and heard, and ever since those tidings
have been handed down from man to man.
AFTERWORD
TO THE FOOLING OF GYLFE.
The asas now sat down to talk, and held their counsel, and remembered
all the tales that were told to Gylfe. They gave the very same names
that had been named before to the men and places that were there. This
they did for the reason that, when a long time has elapsed, men should
not doubt that those asas of whom these tales were now told and those to
whom the same names were given were all identical. There was one who is
called Thor, and he is Asa-Thor, the old. He is Oku-Thor, and to him are
ascribed the great deeds done by Hektor in Troy. But men think that the
Turks have told of Ulysses, and have called him Loke, for the Turks were
his greatest enemies.
BRAGE’S TALK.
CHAPTER I.
ÆGER’S JOURNEY TO ASGARD.
1. A man by name Æger, or Hler, who dwelt on the island called Hler’s
Isle, was well skilled in the black art. He made a journey to Asgard.
But the asas knew of his coming and gave him a friendly reception; but
they also made use of many sorts of delusions. In the evening, when the
feast began, Odin had swords brought into the hall, and they were so
bright that it glistened from them so that there was no need of any
other light while they sat drinking. Then went the asas to their feast,
and the twelve asas who were appointed judges seated themselves in their
high-seats. These are their names: Thor, Njord, Frey, Tyr, Heimdal,
Brage, Vidar, Vale, Uller, Honer, Forsete, Loke. The asynjes (goddesses)
also were with them: Frigg, Freyja, Gefjun, Idun, Gerd, Sigyn, Fulla,
Nanna. Æger thought all that he saw looked very grand. The panels of the
walls were all covered with beautiful shields. The mead was very strong,
and they drank deep. Next to Æger sat Brage, and they talked much
together over their drink. Brage spoke to Æger of many things that had
happened to the asas.
CHAPTER II.
IDUN AND HER APPLES.
2. Brage began his tale by telling how three asas, Odin, Loke and Honer,
went on a journey over mountains and heaths, where they could get
nothing to eat. But when they came down into a valley they saw a herd of
cattle. From this herd they took an ox and went to work to boil it. When
they deemed that it must be boiled enough they uncovered the broth, but
it was not yet done. After a little while they lifted the cover off
again, but it was not yet boiled. They talked among themselves about how
this could happen. Then they heard a voice in the oak above them, and he
who sat there said that he was the cause that the broth did not get
boiled. They looked up and saw an eagle, and it was not a small one.
Then said the eagle: If you will give me my fill of the ox, then the
broth will be boiled. They agreed to this. So he flew down from the
tree, seated himself beside the boiling broth, and immediately snatched
up first the two thighs of the ox and then both the shoulders. This made
Loke wroth: he grasped a large pole, raised it with all his might and
dashed it at the body of the eagle. The eagle shook himself after the
blow and flew up. One end of the pole fastened itself to the body of the
eagle, and the other end stuck to Loke’s hands. The eagle flew just high
enough so that Loke’s feet were dragged over stones and rocks and trees,
and it seemed to him that his arms would be torn from his
shoulder-blades. He calls and prays the eagle most earnestly for peace,
but the latter declares that Loke shall never get free unless he will
pledge himself to bring Idun and her apples out of Asgard. When Loke had
promised this, he was set free and went to his companions again; and no
more is related of this journey, except that they returned home. But at
the time agreed upon, Loke coaxed Idun out of Asgard into a forest,
saying that he had found apples that she would think very nice, and he
requested her to take with her her own apples in order to compare them.
Then came the giant Thjasse in the guise of an eagle, seized Idun and
flew away with her to his home in Thrymheim. The asas were ill at ease
on account of the disappearance of Idun,--they became gray-haired and
old. They met in council and asked each other who last had seen Idun.
The last that had been seen of her was that she had gone out of Asgard
in company with Loke. Then Loke was seized and brought into the council,
and he was threatened with death or torture. But he became frightened,
and promised to bring Idun back from Jotunheim if Freyja would lend him
the falcon-guise that she had. He got the falcon-guise, flew north into
Jotunheim, and came one day to the giant Thjasse. The giant had rowed
out to sea, and Idun was at home alone. Loke turned her into the
likeness of a nut, held her in his claws and flew with all his might.
But when Thjasse returned home and missed Idun, he took on his
eagle-guise, flew after Loke, gaining on the latter with his eagle
wings. When the asas saw the falcon coming flying with the nut, and how
the eagle flew, they went to the walls of Asgard and brought with them
bundles of plane-shavings. When the falcon flew within the burg, he let
himself drop down beside the burg-wall. Then the asas kindled a fire in
the shavings; and the eagle, being unable to stop himself when he missed
the falcon, caught fire in his feathers, so that he could not fly any
farther. The asas were on hand and slew the giant Thjasse within the
gates of Asgard, and that slaughter is most famous.
CHAPTER III.
HOW NJORD GOT SKADE TO WIFE.
Skade, the daughter of the giant Thjasse, donned her helmet, and byrnie,
and all her war-gear, and betook herself to Asgard to avenge her
father’s death. The asas offered her ransom and atonement; and it was
agreed to, in the first place, that she should choose herself a husband
among the asas, but she was to make her choice by the feet, which was
all she was to see of their persons. She saw one man’s feet that were
wonderfully beautiful, and exclaimed: This one I choose! On Balder there
are few blemishes. But it was Njord, from Noatun. In the second place,
it was stipulated that the asas were to do what she did not deem them
capable of, and that was to make her laugh. Then Loke tied one end of a
string fast to the beard of a goat and the other around his own body,
and one pulled this way and the other that, and both of them shrieked
out loud. Then Loke let himself fall on Skade’s knees, and this made her
laugh. It is said that Odin did even more than was asked, in that he
took Thjasse’s eyes and cast them up into heaven, and made two stars of
them. Then said Æger: This Thjasse seems to me to have been considerable
of a man; of what kin was he? Brage answered: His father’s name was
Olvalde, and if I told you of him, you would deem it very remarkable.
He was very rich in gold, and when he died and his sons were to divide
their heritage, they had this way of measuring the gold, that each
should take his mouthful of gold, and they should all take the same
number of mouthfuls. One of them was Thjasse, another Ide, and the third
Gang. But we now have it as a saw among us, that we call gold the
mouth-number of these giants. In runes and songs we wrap the gold up by
calling it the measure, or word, or tale, of these giants. Then said
Æger: It seems to me that it will be well hidden in the runes.
CHAPTER IV.
THE ORIGIN OF POETRY.
3. And again said Æger: Whence originated the art that is called
skaldship? Made answer Brage: The beginning of this was, that the gods
had a war with the people that are called vans. They agreed to hold a
meeting for the purpose of making peace, and settled their dispute in
this wise, that they both went to a jar and spit into it. But at parting
the gods, being unwilling to let this mark of peace perish, shaped it
into a man whose name was Kvaser, and who was so wise that no one could
ask him any question that he could not answer. He traveled much about in
the world to teach men wisdom. Once he came to the home of the dwarfs
Fjalar and Galar. They called him aside, saying they wished to speak
with him alone, slew him and let his blood run into two jars called Son
and Bodn, and into a kettle called Odrarer. They mixed honey with the
blood, and thus was produced such mead that whoever drinks from it
becomes a skald and sage. The dwarfs told the asas that Kvaser had
choked in his wisdom, because no one was so wise that he could ask him
enough about learning.
4. Then the dwarfs invited to themselves the giant whose name is
Gilling, and his wife; and when he came they asked him to row out to sea
with them. When they had gotten a short distance from shore, the dwarfs
rowed onto a blind rock and capsized the boat. Gilling, who was unable
to swim, was drowned, but the dwarfs righted the boat again and rowed
ashore. When they told of this mishap to his wife she took it much to
heart, and began to cry aloud. Then Fjalar asked her whether it would
not lighten her sorrow if she could look out upon the sea where her
husband had perished, and she said it would. He then said to his brother
Galar that he should go up over the doorway, and as she passed out he
should let a mill-stone drop onto her head, for he said he was tired of
her bawling, Galar did so. When the giant Suttung, the son of Gilling,
found this out he came and seized the dwarfs, took them out to sea and
left them on a rocky island, which was flooded at high tide. They prayed
Suttung to spare their lives, and offered him in atonement for their
father’s blood the precious mead, which he accepted. Suttung brought the
mead home with him, and hid it in a place called Hnitbjorg. He set his
daughter Gunlad to guard it. For these reasons we call songship Kvaser’s
blood; the drink of the dwarfs; the dwarfs’ fill; some kind of liquor of
Odrarer, or Bodn or Son; the ship of the dwarfs (because this mead
ransomed their lives from the rocky isle); the mead of Suttung, or the
liquor of Hnitbjorg.
5. Then remarked Æger: It seems dark to me to call songship by these
names; but how came the asas by Suttung’s mead? Answered Brage: The saga
about this is, that Odin set out from home and came to a place where
nine thralls were mowing hay. He asked them whether they would like to
have him whet their scythes. To this they said yes. Then he took a
whet-stone from his belt and whetted the scythes. They thought their
scythes were much improved, and asked whether the whet-stone was for
sale. He answered that he who would buy it must pay a fair price for it.
All said they were willing to give the sum demanded, and each wanted
Odin to sell it to him. But he threw the whet-stone up in the air, and
when all wished to catch it they scrambled about it in such a manner
that each brought his scythe onto the other’s neck. Odin sought lodgings
for the night at the house of the giant Bauge, who was a brother of