The Younger Edda; Also called Snorre's Edda, or The Prose Edda
And giantesses wild.
The braces trembled.
Then fell the mill,--
In twain was broken
The heavy stone.
All the old world
Shook and trembled,
But the giant’s maid
Speedily said:
We have turned the mill, Frode!
Now we may stop.
By the mill long enough
The maidens have stood.
[Footnote 98: These words are spoken by the maidens while they put
the mill together.]
[Footnote 99: Frode.]
[Footnote 100: The mill.]
ROLF KRAKE.
A king in Denmark hight Rolf Krake, and was the most famous of all kings
of olden times; moreover, he was more mild, brave and condescending than
all other men. A proof of his condescension, which is very often spoken
of in olden stories, was the following: There was a poor little fellow
by name Vog. He once came into King Rolf’s hall while the king was yet a
young man, and of rather delicate growth. Then Vog went before him and
looked up at him. Then said the king: What do you mean to say, my
fellow, by looking so at me? Answered Vog: When I was at home I heard
people say that King Rolf, at Hleidra, was the greatest man in the
northlands, but now sits here in the high-seat a little crow (krake),
and it they call their king. Then made answer the king: You, my fellow,
have given me a name, and I shall henceforth be called Rolf Krake, but
it is customary that a gift accompanies the name. Seeing that you have
no gift that you can give me with the name, or that would be suitable to
me, then he who has must give to the other. Then he took a gold ring off
his hand and gave it to the churl. Then said Vog: You give as the best
king of all, and therefore I now pledge myself to become the bane of him
who becomes your bane. Said the king, laughing: A small thing makes Vog
happy.
Another example is told of Rolf Krake’s bravery. In Upsala reigned a
king by name Adils, whose wife was Yrsa, Rolf Krake’s mother. He was
engaged in a war with Norway’s king, Ale. They fought a battle on the
ice of the lake called Wenern. King Adils sent a message to Rolf Krake,
his stepson, asking him to come and help him, and promising to furnish
pay for his whole army during the campaign. Furthermore King Rolf
himself should have any three treasures that he might choose in Sweden.
But Rolf Krake could not go to his assistance, on account of the war
which he was then waging against the Saxons. Still he sent twelve
berserks to King Adils. Among them were Bodvar Bjarke, Hjalte the
Valiant, Hvitserk the Keen, Vot, Vidsete, and the brothers Svipday and
Beigud. In that war fell King Ale and a large part of his army. Then
King Adils took from the dead King Ale the helmet called Hildesvin, and
his horse called Rafn. Then the berserks each demanded three pounds of
gold in pay for their service, and also asked for the treasures which
they had chosen for Rolf Krake, and which they now desired to bring to
him. These were the helmet Hildegolt; the byrnie Finnsleif, which no
steel could scathe; and the gold ring called Sviagris, which had
belonged to Adils’ forefathers. But the king refused to surrender any of
these treasures, nor did he give the berserks any pay. The berserks then
returned home, and were much dissatisfied. They reported all to King
Rolf, who straightway busked himself to fare against Upsala; and when he
came with his ships into the river Fyre, he rode against Upsala, and
with him his twelve berserks, all peaceless. Yrsa, his mother, received
him and took him to his lodgings, but not to the king’s hall. Large
fires were kindled for them, and ale was brought them to drink. Then
came King Adils’ men in and bore fuel onto the fireplace, and made a
fire so great that it burnt the clothes of Rolf and his berserks,
saying: Is it true that neither fire nor steel will put Rolf Krake and
his berserks to flight? Then Rolf Krake and all his men sprang up, and
he said:
Let us increase the blaze
In Adils’ chambers.
He took his shield and cast it into the fire, and sprang over the fire
while the shield was burning, and cried:
From the fire flees not he
Who over it leaps.
The same did also his men, one after the other, and then they took those
who had put fuel on the fire and cast them into it. Now Yrsa came and
handed Rolf Krake a deer’s horn full of gold, and with it she gave him
the ring Sviagris, and requested them to ride straightway to their army.
They sprang upon their horses and rode away over the Fyrisvold. Then
they saw that King Adils was riding after them with his whole army, all
armed, and was going to slay them. Rolf Krake took gold out of the horn
with his right hand, and scattered it over the whole way. But when the
Swedes saw it they leaped out of their saddles, and each one took as
much as he could. King Adils bade them ride, and he himself rode on with
all his might. The name of his horse was Slungner, the fastest of all
horses. When Rolf Krake saw that King Adils was riding near him, he took
the ring Sviagris and threw it to him, asking him to take it as a gift.
King Adils rode to the ring, picked it up with the end of his spear, and
let it slide down to his hand. Then Rolf Krake turned round and saw that
the other was stooping. Said he: Like a swine I have now bended the
foremost of all Swedes. Thus they parted. Hence gold is called the seed
of Krake or of Fyrisvold.
HOGNE AND HILD.
A king by name Hogne had a daughter by name Hild. Her a king, by name
Hedin, son of Hjarrande, made a prisoner of war, while King Hogne had
fared to the trysting of the kings. But when he learned that there had
been harrying in his kingdom, and that his daughter had been taken away,
he rode with his army in search of Hedin, and learned that he had sailed
northward along the coast. When King Hogne came to Norway, he found out
that Hedin had sailed westward into the sea. Then Hogne sailed after him
to the Orkneys. And when he came to the island called Ha, then Hedin was
there before him with his host. Then Hild went to meet her father, and
offered him as a reconciliation from Hedin a necklace; but if he was not
willing to accept this, she said that Hedin was prepared for a battle,
and Hogne might expect no clemency from him. Hogne answered his daughter
harshly. When she returned to Hedin, she told him that Hogne would not
be reconciled, and bade him busk himself for the battle. And so both
parties did; they landed on the island and marshaled their hosts. Then
Hedin called to Hogne, his father-in-law, offering him a reconciliation
and much gold as a ransom. Hogne answered: Too late do you offer to make
peace with me, for now I have drawn the sword Dainsleif, which was
smithied by the dwarfs, and must be the death of a man whenever it is
drawn; its blows never miss the mark, and the wounds made by it never
heal. Said Hedin: You boast the sword, but not the victory. That I call
a good sword that is always faithful to its master. Then they began the
battle which is called the Hjadninga-vig (the slaying of the
Hedin_ians_); they fought the whole day, and in the evening the kings
fared back to their ships. But in the night Hild went to the
battlefield, and waked up with sorcery all the dead that had fallen. The
next day the kings went to the battlefield and fought, and so did also
all they who had fallen the day before. Thus the battle continued from
day to day; and all they who fell, and all the swords that lay on the
field of battle, and all the shields, became stone. But as soon as day
dawned all the dead arose again and fought, and all the weapons became
new again, and in songs it is said that the Hjadnings will so continue
until Ragnarok.
NOTES.
ENEA.
The Enea mentioned in the Foreword to Gylfe’s Fooling refers to the
settlement of western Europe, where Æneas is said to have founded a city
on the Tiber. Bergmann, however, in his Fascination de Gulfi, page 28,
refers it to the Thracian town Ainos.
HERIKON.
Herikon is undoubtedly a mutilated form for Erichthonios. The genealogy
here given corresponds with the one given in the Iliad, Book 20, 215.
THE HISTORICAL ODIN.
The historical or anthropomorphized Odin, described in the Foreword to
the Fooling of Gylfe, becomes interesting when we compare it with
Snorre’s account of that hero in Heimskringla, and then compare both
accounts with the Roman traditions about Æneas. Of course the whole
story is only a myth; but we should remember that in the minds and
hearts of our ancestors it served every purpose of genuine history. Our
fathers accepted it in as good faith as any Christian ever believed in
the gospel of Christ, and so it had a similar influence in moulding the
social, religious, political and literary life of our ancestors. We
become interested in this legend as much as if it were genuine history,
on account of the influence it wielded upon the minds and hearts of a
race destined to act so great a part in the social, religious and
political drama of Europe. We look into this and other ancestral myths,
and see mirrored in them all that we afterward find to be reliable
history of the old Teutons. In the same manner we are interested in the
story told about Romulus and Remus, about Mars and the wolf. This Roman
myth is equally prophetic in reference to the future career of Rome. The
warlike Mars, the rapacity of the wolf, and the fratricide Romulus, form
a mirror in which we see reflected the whole historical development of
the Romans; so that the story of Romulus is a vest-pocket edition of the
history of Rome.
There are many points of resemblance between this old story of Odin and
the account that Virgil gives us of Æneas, the founder of the Latin
race; and it is believed that, while Virgil imitated Homer, he based his
poem upon a legend current among his countrymen. The Greeks in Virgil’s
poem are Pompey and the Romans in our Teutonic story. The Trojans
correspond to Mithridates and his allies. Æneas and Odin are identical.
Just as Odin, a heroic defender of Mithridates, after traversing various
unknown countries, finally reaches the north of Europe, organizes the
various Teutonic kingdoms, settles his sons upon the thrones of Germany,
England, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, and instructs his people to gather
strength and courage, so as eventually to take revenge on the cursed
Romans; so Æneas, one of the most valiant defenders of Troy, after many
adventures in various lands, at length settles in Italy, and becomes the
founder of a race that in course of time is to wreak vengeance upon the
Greeks. The prophecy contained in the Roman legend was fulfilled by
Metellus and Mummius, in the years 147 and 146 before Christ, when the
Romans became the conquerors of Greece. The prophecy contained in our
Teutonic legend foreshadowed with no less unrelenting necessity the
downfall of proud Rome, when the Teutonic commander Odoacer, in the year
476 after Christ, dethroned, not Romulus, brother of Remus, but Romulus
Augustulus, son of Orestes. Thus history repeats itself. Roman history
begins and ends with Romulus; and we fancy we can see some connection
between Od-in and Od-oacer. “As the twig is bent the tree is inclined.”
It might be interesting to institute a similar comparison between our
Teutonic race-founder Odin and Ulysses, king of Ithaca, but the reader
will have to do this for himself.
In one respect our heroes differ. The fall of Troy and the wanderings of
Ulysses became the theme of two great epic poems among the Greeks. The
wanderings and adventures of Æneas, son of Anchises, were fashioned into
a lordly epic by Virgil for the Romans. But the much-traveled man, the
ἀνὴρ πολύτροπος, the weapons and the hero, Odin, who, driven by the
norns, first came to Teutondom and to the Baltic shores, has not yet