Hail to all Heathens,
Sorry about this being a late post but I had a confusing week and so this didn't come out like it was supposed to. Enjoy and I'll see you tomorrow.
Voluspo 21-24
So today is another section of Voluspo and I really hope that your
enjoying it. Reading the saga's is one of my sinful pleasures that I
have. It's something that I find exciting, enriching, and rewarding.
Each line will have notes when provided.
21: In swelling rage then rose up Thor,— Seldom he sits when he such
things hears,— And the oaths were broken, the words and bonds, The
mighty pledges between them made.
(My note: This is the 'I'm dumb and stupid' moment. This is the reason
that Thor and the other gods end up having all their problems. This is
why I really look at raciest Heathens and really wonder if they really
read the saga's or just think they know. When a god makes a huge
mistake, and it later on affects the end, then their at fault. It also
proves that the gods are not perfect and they are the ones that should
look to us to keep from making the fool mistake that they made.) ( Thor:
the thunder-god, son of Othin and Jorth (Earth) ; cf. particularly
Harbarthsljoth and Thrymskvitha, passim. Oaths, etc.: the gods, by
violating their oaths to the giant who rebuilt Asgarth, aroused the
undying hatred of the giants’ race, and thus the giants were among their
enemies in the final battle.)
22: I know of the horn of Heimdall, hidden Under the high-reaching holy
tree; On it there pours from Valfather’s pledge A mighty stream: would
you know yet more ?
( Here the Volva turns from her memories of the past to a statement of
some of Othin’s own secrets in his eternal search for knowledge (stanzas
27-29). Bugge puts this stanza after stanza 29. The horn of Heimdall:
the Gjallarhorn (“Shrieking Horn”), with which Heimdall, watchman of the
gods, will summon them to the last battle. Till that time the horn is
buried under Yggdrasil. Valfather’s pledge: Othin’s eye (the sun?),
which he gave to the water-spirit Mimir (or Mim) in exchange for the
latter’s wisdom. It appears here and in stanza 29 as a drinking-vessel,
from which Mimir drinks the magic mead, and from which he pours water on
the ash Yggdrasil. Othin’s sacrifice of his eye in order to gain
knowledge of his final doom is one of the series of disasters leading up
to the destruction of the gods. There were several differing versions
of the story of Othin’s relations with Mimir; another one, quite
incompatible with this, appears in stanza 47. In the manuscripts I know
and I see appear as “she knows” and “she sees” (cf. note on 21)).
23: Alone I sat when the Old One sought me, The terror of gods, and
gazed in mine eyes: “What hast thou to ask? why comest thou hither?
Othin, I know where thine eye is hidden.”
( The Hauksbok version omits all of stanzas 28-34, stanza 27 being there
followed by stanzas 40 and 41. Regius indicates stanzas 28 and 29 as a
single stanza. Bugge puts stanza 28 after stanza 22, as the second
stanza of his reconstructed poem. The Volva here addresses Othin
directly, intimating that, although he has not told her, she knows why
he has come to her, and what he has already suffered in his search for
knowledge regarding his doom. Her reiterated “would you know yet more?”
seems to mean: “I have proved my wisdom by telling of the past and of
your own secrets; is it your will that I tell likewise of the fate in
store for you?” The Old One: Othin.)
24: I know where Othin’s eye is hidden, Deep in the wide-famed well of
Mimir; Mead from the pledge of Othin each morn Does Mimir drink: would
you know yet more?
( The first line, not in either manuscript, is a conjectural emendation
based on Snorri’s paraphrase. Bugge puts this stanza after stanza 20.)
HAIL THOR!!!!! HAIL ODIN!!!!!
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