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CORPVS POETICVM BOREALE
GUDBRAND VIGFUSSON
F. YORK POWELL
TOL. U. *
'Eontion HENRY FROWDE
OXrOBS mriVBBBITT PBB88 WA^XHOnSB 7 PATEONOBTEB fiOW
CORPVS POETICVM BOREALE
THE POETRY
OF THE
OLD NORTHERN TONGUE
FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY
EDITED CLASSIFIED AND TRANSLATED
WITH
II/TRODUCTION, EXCURSUS, AND NOTES
BY
GUDBRAND VIGFUSSON, M.A.
AND
F. YORK POWELL, M.A.
VOL. II
COURT POETRY
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
MDCCCLX XXIII r All rights nurved]
3 ^ 5 se:' njn |;"1
At ^
BOOK VII.
HEATHEN POETRY IN COURT METRE.
The various poems in this Book represent the antique heathen age of court poets. They are hard to group, but have here been roughly arranged according to subject. They range, with one important exception (Bragi), from c. 930-995.
Section 1. Mythical. Contains the Hesiodic Shield-songs, poems on the Labours of Thor and the like ; addressed to kings and nobles.
Section 2. Historical. Early royal court poetry of heathen time, of the days of King Hacon to E^rl Hacon.
Section 3. Fragments of private historical compositions, poems on the sea, on Icelandic heroes, and the like in court metre, but not composed on Kings or E^rls.
Section 4. Stray verses of lyrical cast. Improvisations on a variety of subjects, many relating to incidents of Icelandic feuds.
vol- i^-
B
§ I. MYTHICAL COURT POEMS.
BRAGrS SHIELD-LAY (RAGNARS-DRAPA).
There are two Bragis ; with one, a mythical divine being (originally perhaps Woden himself, in his character as the arch-poct), we have nothing to do here ; but the other, Bragi, the son of Boddi, sumamed the old (Gamli) to distinguish him from a son or younger kinsman pos- sibly, is a real historical personage. He is mentioned in Landnama- bok, Snorri's Edda, Skaldatal, Ynglinga, Egil's Saga, etc. We must base our views of his date and position in Northern poetry upon what we can gather from the poems ascribed to him by Snorri, and from Ari*s genealogy of his family in Landnama-bok. The more important of the poems is a Shield-Song (Ragnars-drdpa) upon a shield sent by King Ragnarr (Rcginhere), son of Sigrod (Sigfred), to Bragi by the hand of Hrafnketill (RavenkettleJ. The genealogy runs thus —
Bragi Bodda Jon, m, Lopthzna daughter of Erp lutandi Astrid Slzkidreing, m. Arinbiorn the elder (of the Fiords)
Arnthrudr, m. Thori Hersi Loptha:na, m, Thorstein
I I
Arinbiorn Hersi, d. 976 Hrosskel of Acreness, a settler
I Hallkel
I ^ \
Tind, c. 990-1010 Illugi Swarti
I Thorwald Gunnlaug Ormstunga^
I c. 984-1008
Illugi
Gisl^ 1 100
The two Arinbioms and Thori were nobles of the district of the Friths in Western Norway. The date of Bragi has been hitherto thrown too far back. Counting from Arinbiorn, EgiFs friend, and re- membering that the two generations between, being of women, are probably short, we might safely make Bragi's life to lie between c. 835 and 900. This date does not forbid our identifying the Ragnar Sigrod's son, Bnigi*s patron, with the famous Ragnar Lodbrok. Snorri says, * Bragi the old spoke of Sorli and Hamtheow in the Encomium he made in Ragnar Lodbrok ; ' and again, in reference to the Everlasting Fight,
[BK.vn. §1.] BRAOrS SHIELD-LAY. 3
' According to this story Bragi the poet made his verse in his Encomium of Ragnar Lodbrok (Ragnars drdpa lo¥br6kar).*
The legend as preserved in the North tells of a king Ragnar, Sigrod's son [Reginhere Sigfredsson], surnamed Lodbrok [probably eagU, as hibrok means ba<wk]^ coming to England, where he was slain by a king Ella. Lodbrok's sons then invaded England and conquered part of it. The first ships of the Northmen from Harethaland are noted in the English Chronicles, and seem, according to Mr. Howorth's hypothesis, to have come in 793. A king I;lla of Northumberland is known to the English authorities, and dated c. 867.
In the poem itself we find that the shield is sent to Bragi, which implies, one would fancy, a distance between the king's seat and the poet's homestead. This agrees with tradition and the genealogies, which place Bragi on the N.W. coast in the Friths and make Ragnar reign in the Wick and Westfold, near Drammen. See Introduction to Book ix, § I. Consistent with this are the two or three mentions of Bragi as connected with Eystein Beli, king of the Swedes, a foe of Ragnar Lodbrok and his sons (see Skaldatal), and the incident alluded to by Arinbiorn in F-gil's Saga, when he advises Egil to calm Eric's anger by a poem of praise, * for so did Bragi, my kinsman [the true reading is * minn *]. When he had drawn down on him the wrath of Biorn o* Howe, king of the Swedes, he made an Encomium [drdpa] of twenty stanzas upon him, in one night, and so ransomed his head.' A story which, by the by, seems the nucleus of the legend that has descended upon Egil, and is given as the ground for the title Head-Ransom of his rhymed Encomium on Eric Bloodaxe. However this be, we may safely take it that all chronological requirements will be satisfied by taking Bragi to have been a poet famous in the last generation of the Nor- wegian polyarchy and living into the days of Harold Fairhair.
Bragi has left a great name behind, and his poems, if we had them in their original form, would be a most precious monument of the speech and thought of a famous age in the North. But it is not so. It cannot be too often insisted on, that the remains of his verse that have reached us have been so completely metamorphosed^ that save for a line here and there <nr^ cannot rely upon ivordy metre, or meaning; and any version which may be given of them must be more or less different from what Bragi composed. No amount of critical ingenuity can possibly do more than recover a genuine phrase here and there in these old poems.
Nor are the reasons of this metamorphosis far to seek. Bragi composed at a time when, under some foreign influence, a new school of poetry was rising in the North. The common old four-measured alliterative metre was changed into a more regular six-measured line. A new orna- ment— consonantic correspondence {consonance as we may call it) — was brought into the line, the poetical synonyms were developed to a very extraordinary degree, the wide field of mythology being ransacked for apt and ingenious allusions, and lastly the loose varying periods of the old poetry were replaced by a new unit — the four-lined stanza (itself a doubling of the two-lined couplet), and these stanzas were combined into regular strophes. Bragi himself probably took no mean part in introducing these new forms, which were gradually perfected by successive generations of court poets, till in St. Olave's and Harold Hardreda's time we see the court metre in perfection, with strict six-measured lines (sometimes even eight- measured), consonance, full line-rhyme, fill-gaps (st<U), strict syntactic arrangement, and elaborate strophic form.
B 3
4 MYTHICAL COURT POEMS. [bk.to.
During nearly nine generations, almost three centuries, Bragi's verses must have suffered many changes in his reciters' mouths, even by the time that Ari received them; but these changes, though no doubt modernising grammar, substituting newer for older words and phrases, were not of the radical character which, we believe, those of a later date were. In the North French Chansons de geste, we see the old 'assonantic leashes* replaced by rhymed couplets, and these by Alexandrines, as successive editions of a poem are adapted to successive generations, and we take it, that either deliberately, as in France, or by degrees, many of Bragi's rough lines were in the generations between Ari and Snorri polished into more or less strict court-metre of Harold Sigurdsson's day ; a line here and there being left almost untouched, where tradition spoke too strongly in its favour, to give us some glimpse into the real state of the case. A line, one half blank, one half with a fairly pure consonance, is, we think, the true Bragian line, still extant in the burden J —
|>at sek fall a fugrom, etc. |>a ni4 sokn, etc. ;
and the lines we have been able to recover —
iofrom vulfs of sinna me5 valgifris lifro ;
and —
fyr Veniris viftri val-rauf fiogor havfuft.
Many of the lines yield as they stand either no meaning at all, or a forced commonplace platitude. This must not be put to the poet : on the whole, we believe that two-thirds of the verses in Bragi's remains are either maimed or metamorphosed so that we cannot be sure of a word in them, in the remaining third a word or phrase occurs with the genuine 'Bragian' ring.
The old Hamtheow*s Lay must have been known to Bragi. We have noted the parallelisms in the margin. Egil seems to have known Bragi's poems. We may fancy that such characteristic and pecuUar words as 'enni-tungl* (Egil's *enni-mani*) were coined by Bragi, and passed from him to the younger poet.
Most if not all of Bragi's verse that has reached us are from a Shield- Layy viz. the introduction, and two sections (the Everlasting Fight and the Struggle in Eormanric's Hall). Part of a third section (on Gefion's Draught), and an epilogue (on the King's Guerdon), may have belonged to the same poem, as we have arranged it here. As also the fragments depicting 1 hor fishing for the Earth-Serpent, and a few lines on the same god's exploits against the three-headed monster Thriwald and the giant Thiazzi (which it is possible may have belonged to a separate Thors Drapa), together with a line on Woden.
The little verse ascribed by Snorri to Bragi, see Book vi. Ditties No. I, is given by Saxo to Bersi and Groa. See Notes.
The jbifiti which Bragi describes, may have been not unlike those of Homer and Hesiod. Like them too, it was probably of foreign design and make. The lively fancy of a poet would identify the struggling monsters on an eastern target with Thor and the Beast (just as he would no doubt have, had he seen a Greek vase, identified the sack of Troy with the vengeance of Gudrun's son on Eonnanric, or Herakles and Geruones \\ ith Thunder and Thriwald), as we know that Warangian tradition declared the statues in the Hippodrome at Constantinople to be the images of their own Wolsungs and Giukungs.
The story of the Everlasting Battle is a wide-spread tradition in the North, localised in many places. Saxo the Dane fixes it in Hethinsoe,
§1.] BRAGFS SHIELD-LAY. 5
the German author of Kudrun lays the scene at Wiilpensand or Wiil- penwert, at the Scheldt-mouth, Bragi the Northman (see 1. 14 and in our reading 1. 17) in Hod, an island off Northmore in Norway, while Snorri, whose information on these matters is, we take it, drawn from the Western Islands more or less remotely, places it at Hoy in the Orkneys, where also it is fixed by the late legend in Flatey-bok, where King Olaf Tryggvason is made to break the spell that bound the doomed kings.
Snorri tells the tale in Skaldskapa-mal thus: — "A king who is called Hogni (Hagena) had a daughter whose name was Hild. The king, whose name was Hedin, the son of Hiarrand, carried her off as captive. Hagena was away at the time at the Kings'- Moot, but when he heard that his realm had been harried and his daughter carried away, he set out with his men of war to seek Hedin, having heard that Hedin had sailed northward up the coast; but when King Hagena came to Norway, he heard that Hedin had sailed west across the main. Then Hagena sailed after him as far as the Orkneys, and when he came to the island that is called Hoy, there he found Hedin with his men of war. Then Hild went to meet her father, and offered him on Hedin's behalf a Necklace for peace, but her words were otherwise, for she said that Hedin had made ready to fight, and that Hagena could look for no mercy from him. Hagena answered his daughter stiffly, but when she came back to Hedin, she told him that Hagena would have no peace, and bade him make ready for battle. So the two kings did, and landed on the island and set their warriors in array. Then Hedin called to Hagena his father-in-law and offered him to make peace and give him much gold as boot. Then answered Hagena, Thou makest this offer too late, if thou wtshest for peace, for now I have drawn Dains-loom which the Dwarves wrought^ that is fated to be a man's death every time it is made bare, and never swerves in its stroke, and its wound never heals, if it be but a scratch of it. Then answered Hedin, Thou shalt brag of thy sword but not of the victory. I call that a good sword that is true to its master. Then they begun the battle which is called the Heatbnings* Figbty and fought all the day, but in the evening the kings went off to their ships. But Hild went by night to the slain, and woke to life by her enchant- ment all them that were dead. And the next day the kings went to the field of battle and fought, and with them all they that had fallen on the former day. So that battle went on day after day, and all they that fell and all their weapons that lay on the field of battle, and their bucklers likewise, turned to stone ; but in the dawning all the dead men arose and fought and all their weapons then became of use again. And it is told in Lays that the Heathnings shall in this wise abide the Doom of the Powers."
The 'stone weapons* look as if the necessary correspondence in shape l>etween weapons of bronze and stone had been noticed by some early observer, and theorised upon with a curious inversion of the develop- ment theory.
firagi takes up the story when the two kings are lying at the island ready for war, and that guileful witch, the fair Hild, is going from one to the other with the necklace.
TTie Eormanric story, as told by Bragi, begins with the Gothic king's evil dream and waking under the swords of the avenging brethren. The scene in the hall must have been of great power in the original form. The death of the brethren closes the strophe. Snorri's prose here follows Bragi rather than Hamtheow's Lay ; — * But when they came to
6 MYTHICAL COURT POEMS. [bk.vii.
King Eormanric's by night, when he was sleeping, and cut off his hands and feet, then he awoke and called to his men and bade them awake.' Nor docs Snorri know of Woden's interposition, but with our poem ascribes to Eormanric himself the command to stone the brothers.
The Gefion story, a geographic legend, is told in Ynglinga Saga, where the lake from which the island Zealand is dragged is called Maelar (by a mistake which would easily occur to foreigners at a time when maps were not). However, the poem itself contains the real name (which one glance at the shape of the lake makes evident) concealed under the senseless 'uineyiar ualrauf.* There must have been another like story about Gotland and Mxlar lake, one would think. The four heads and eight eyes recall the old chariot scenes of Assyrian and Egyptian sculpture, and incline one to put this section to the Shield Lay.
The next morsel, Tbor and tbf Serpent , if we read * sent ' as * seen,* an archaic form (and it can hardly be from ' senna ' the meaning of which * to banter * would not fit), would be also a section of a Shield-Lay.
We should thus get a round target of four sections, each con- taining a scene of a separate subject. The sections pf this shield may even have led to the strophic division of the drdpa, which was possibly a development of the Shield-Lay, and Bragi, the earliest Northern Shield- Poet, may have been the creator of this metric form.
Bragi's fragments are found in Edda, Codex Wormianus as usual vielding the best text. But the Eormanric section, not found there, is Dest given in i e 3, which, for instance, has preser\'ed the right reading *ol-skalir,' confirmed by Hamtheow's Lay, where Cd. r is wrong. Gefion's bit is also seen in Ynglinga Saga. Sinfitela's death is alluded to in a * kenning.'
Contemporaries of Bragi are Flein Hicrson, Erp Loavting (Lutandi), and WolfUargi.
* Thorwolf the son of Hariwolf Horn-breaker, and Olaf (AnlaO his brother, were kings in the Uplands. With them was Flein Hiorson the poet, who was bred up north in More, in an island a little off Borgimd, which is called losurhcath, where his father dwelt. Flein went to Den- mark to meet King Eystan, and gat great honour there for his poesy, so that the King gave him his daughter to wife. Thrasi was the name of Thorwolf 's son.' Landnama-boky (H b) V. ch. i.
Erp Lowting was the father-in-law of Bragi the poet. See Land- nama'bok,
* Wolf Uargi was a noble baron in Norway, in Naumdale, the father of Hallbiom Half- fiend, the father of Kettle Ha:ing. Wolf made a Praise-song in one night, telling his valiant deeds, and was dead before daybreak.' Skaldatal. He was Kveld-UlPs mother's father. Landn.
We take *uargc* to be simply *waerg,' cui-scd, wicked; the epithet applied to any of the bigger beasts of prey, lion, etc. It probably implies something like *hamramr' and *ofreskr.'
Ko verse of these men remain, but there is a metre called Flein's.
L Introdtiction,
I. ^ riLTT, Hrafn-ketill, heyra hve hrein-groit steini V tniSar bkal-ok ok pengil piofs ilja-blaS leyfa.^
L Prcki^ue, Hearken, O Ravenkettlc, to my praise of the bright ly- paintcd Shield and of the king, that gai*e it me: so that the son of
2. ok] om. W.
§ I.] BRAGrS SHIELD-LAY. y
2. Nema svi, at g68 ins gialla gisold baug-navar vildi meyjar hi61s enn moeri ma)gr Sigra}dar Ha)gna.
II. Hilda and Hogni,
3. Ok ran' * l^erris oefia ' 6sk-rdn at J)at sfnom 5 til fir-huga fceri feflr vefir *bo6a* hugdi:
M es hristi-sif hringa hals in ba)Is of fyllda bar til byrjar dra)sla baug a)rlygiss draug^.
4. Bau8a sd til bleyfli boe8i-l)rii6r at m6ti
malma moetom hilmi men dreyrogra benja: 10
svi l^t ey l)oat etti sem orrosto letti ia)from Vulfs of sinna mefi valgifris lifro.
5. Letrat I^da stillir landa vanr d sandi
{J)d svall heipt 1 Ha)gna) Ha)8 Glamma 'mun' sta)6va es l)rym-regin t)remja *J)r6ttig Heflins s6tto' 15
heldr en Hildar svfra brings J)eir of fengo.
6. Ok fyr Ha)8 1 holmi hveflro brynjo Viflris feng eydandi fli6da forda&da nam rdda:
Allr gekk heir und *hurdir' Hiarranda *fram kyrrar,' reiflr at Reifniss skeifli raSalfr af mar hribom, 20
7. Pd tnd s6kn a Svelniss sal-penningi kenna
(R(Es gdfomk reidar mdna Ragnarr) ok fi'6l6 sagna,
III. Hamiheow and Sorli in lormunreKs Hall,
8. Kndtti endr vi8 illan Ia)rmunrekr at vakn*^ meS dreyr-far dr6ttir draum 1 sverfta flaumi:
Sigrod [Sigfred] may learn the song I have made in return for the ring-naved buckler.
II. 72v E'verlastlng Battle, The seme beneath the * overlaid'* <words and phrases seems to be — And in dire mood she plotted her father's death, when she maliciously brought him the Necklace down at the ships. It was not for peace sake she brought it him. She made ever as if no bloodshed would come of it, while she was egging them on to the company of the corse-greedy Wolfs sister [Hell].
Hageno, with furious heart, brought his ships to land on the sand of the isle of Hod, and the host of Hedin came forth to meet him, having received Hilda's necklace. Yea, the fatal sorceress prevailed on them to fight in the isle of Hod, and the whole host of Hiarrandi's son [Hedin] marched straightway down to the sea. . . . Refrain, This Battle and many tales more may be seen on the Shield that Ragnar [Reginhere] gave me.
III. The Avenging ofS*wanhild, In days of yore Eormenric and his . . .
3. -navads, 748. 4. Sigurftar, W. 6. bo5a] miswritten in W. II. aetti, W. I a. Vulfs . . . valgifris] emend. ; Ulfs . . . algifris, Cd. 14. Read, mar?
15. Read, -reg^nn . . . J)r6ttigr Heftin solti? 17. Hoft] emend. ; bond, W.
19. Read, and hialmom Hiarranda fram burar. ai-22. Moved four lines down.
23. endO eftr, r; 4^r, ic/3.
8 MYTHICAL COURT POEMS. [bk.vii.
*Hio8. *r6sta varfi f ranni Randv^ss haofufi-nifija 25
t)a es hrafn-blair hefndo harma £rps of barmar. 9. Flaut of set vifl sveita, s6knar-alfs, i, golfi *>Hii3. hraeva-da)gg l)ar es hoeggnar i>hendr sem foetr of kendosk : <5Hio9. cFell f bl6oi blandinn brunn daol-skdlir Tunna dHio8. ^-pat'ts d Let/a landa laufi fdtt — at haofflL 30
10. t'ar sv4 at gaordo gyrdan golf holkvis sd fylkiss 'segls naglfara siglor saums' andvanar standa:
«H39. ur6o snemst ok Saorli ©sam-rdfla l)eir Hamfler hsolom herfli-m^lom Hergautz vino barflir.
11. Miok let stdla stoekkvir stydja ^'Bikka' niSja 35 ^HSs- flaums l)d es *fia)rvi naema Fogl-hildar' mun vildo:
ok 'bla serkjar birkiss ba)ll fagr-ga)to allir' <cHii7. enni-ha)gg ok ^eggiar lonakrs sonom launa.
12. Pat s^k fall d fogrom flotna randar botni
{RcBS gdfomk reibar mdna Ragnarr) ok fi'6l6 sagna. 40
IV. Gefion ploughing Seeland out of Lake Wenereu.
13. Gefion dr6 frd Gylva, gla)8 diup-ra)6ul, a)6la, (svd at af renni-ra)knnom rauk) Danmarkarrauka : Bsoro oexn ok dtta enni-tungl ^ar-es gengo
fyr Veniris viflri val-rauf fiogor ha)fu6.
V. Thor fishing for the Earth Serpent.
1 4. t'at eromk s^nt ; at snemma sonr Alda-fodrs vildi 45 afls vid uri t)afdan laerdar reist of freista.
15. Vaflr Id Viflris arfa vilgi slakr, enn rakfiisk d Eynefiss a)ndri lonnun-gandr at sandi.
host woke out of an evil dream to battle. There arose a tumult in the hall of Randve's kinsman Eormenric what time the raven-black brothers of Erp avenged their wrongs. The benches were swimming in blood, the king's hands and feet lay lopped on the floor, the ale-beakers were shivered, and he fell headlong in his gore. This is painted on my Shield. One might see the hall all stained with blood, the . . . , till at last the two single-hearted brethren Hamtheow and Sarila were stoned with the rolling bowls of the earth [stones]. Bikki's men stoned the brothers who came to avenge Swanhild's death, and they paid back the blows and wounds tbey bad got from Ionakr*s sons.
The Fall of these men and many tales more I see upon the fair field of the Shield. Ragnar gave it me.
IV. The Hire qf Gefion, Gefion the rich dragged the Increase of Den- mark out of Gylve's domain, her ox-team steamed : four fair heads they bore and eight eyes, while they drew the broad Spoil of Lake Wener.
V. Tbor and Lrviatban, Moreover I see how Thor would try his might
28. )>ar es . . . kendosk] i e/9. 29. Emend. ; auUkali, i e/3. 31. syrdan] i. e. gcerdan, gory. 35. Bikka] emend. ; Giuka, W ; see Hdm. 85. 30. Fogl- hildarBSvanhildar? 44. Veniris] emend.; Vineyjar, Cd.
§1.] THIODWOLFS HAUST-LONG. 9
16. Hamri f6rsk f hoegri haond, ))d-es allra landa
eygir a)flog-bar8a endi-seifis of kenndi. 50
17. Ok borO-roins barSa brautar-hringr inn li6ti
d haus-sprengi Hningniss harS-gedr nedan starSL
18. f>iokk-va)xnom kvad t)ykkja t)ikkling firin-mikla hafra-ni6tz at ha)fgom haetting megin-draetti :
t^-es forns litar flotna d fang-boda a)ngli 55
hroekkvi-dll of hrokkinn hekk Volsunga drekko.
19. Vildit vra)ngom ofra 'vdgs hyr-sendir' aegi hinn es mi6-tygil mdva moerar skar fyr l»6ri.
20. Vel hafit yflrom eykjom aptr, Wvalda, haldit
simli sumbls of mserom sundr-kliiifr nio ha)f8a I 60
21. Hinn es varp d vffia vinda Ondor-dfsar
yfir manna sia)t margra munnlaug fa)6or augom.
VI. On Woden.
22. f>ars es lofSar Ifta lung vdfaSar Gungnis.
VII. The End.
23. Elld of J)dk at iaofri a)lna bekks vifi drykkjo;
l)at gaf Fiolniss fialla meS fulli mer stillir. 65
24. f>ann dttak vin verstan vazt-ra)dd, enn mer baztan Ala undir kiilo 6nidradan i'rifija.
HAUST-LONG; or, THE HARVEST-LAY OR
SHIELD-SONG.
We have already made some mention of this poet in Book iv, § a, when we dealt with his poem Ynglingatal. He came from the little dale of Hwin, still known as a valley west of Lindisness (Naze). The patron, for whom he made the poem with which we are con-
against the wave- washed Earth-Serpent. His line was strained hard on to the gunwale While the Leviathan writhed in the sand. He grasped the Hammer in his right hand when he felt the monster on his hook, and the horrid ser]>ent glared up at him. The burly giant Hymir said he thought that Thor had made a parlous haul, when he beheld the venomous snake hanging on the ogre-grasper's hook. He would pull no more, and he cut the slim line for Thor.
O thou that clove asunder Thriwald's nine heads, thou hast brought thy team safe back.
He who cast the eyes of Thiazzi up into the wide dome of the winds, above all the habitations of men.
VL Here one may see the steed of Woden, Sleipni ....
VH. I got gold at the king's hands in return for my song. He {the kmg) was the worst friend to gold and the best to me.
53. firin] forin, W. 6a. foftor] fiogor, W. 64. at] af, W. 66.
raz r^, W.
10 MYTHICAL COURT POEMS. [bk.vii.
cerned, was the great lawyer and constitution-maker Thorleif the Wise, the organiser of Gula-thing (see King Hakon's Saga, cap. 1 1), and the counsellor of the Icelanders in their establishment of one General Constitution, 'which' (as Ari tells in Libellus) *was made for the most part according to the law of Gala-thing as it then stood, and by the advice of Thorleif the Wise, the son of Hordakari, as to the addi- tions or omissions or changes to be made.* Thorleif was the adviser of King Hakon the Good, ^thelstan*s foster -son, and probably died about 960. He was the ancestor of the later Orkney Earls, of the twelfth century. (See their pedigrees, vol. i. of Orkney Saga, Roll Series.) It was for some member of his family that Hyndlu-liod was made. As the poem tells us, he gave Thiodwolf a shield painted with figures, and it is as a return for this bounty that Thiodwolf made the Shield- Song called Haust-long (Harvest-long). The exact meaning of the title is not certain, but it would seem to show that the poem was meant to while away the long autumn evenings. It is a brighter, but at the same time a more religious poem than any other of its kind. The text rests only on two Edda MSS. (W & r), and chiefly Wormianus.
Thiodwolf s poems have suffered far less than Bragi's from the hand of the improver, chiefly we believe because he is of a more modem type as regards metre. His verses come possibly two generations after Bragi's, and these intervening years are most important ones as regards possibilities of foreign, western, and especially Celtic influences ; hence we may readily admit that Thiodwolf employed a more elaborate metric expression than Bragi. Bragi*s characteristic line, as we have seen, probably contained no ornament save the old alliterative syllables in the first half, but had a line-consonance in the second half. From this Thiodwolf seems to have gone a step further and sometimes used a full line-vowel rhyme in the second half, while he put a line-con- sonance in the first half, thus in all probability, for we have no earlier examples of it than his, originating the normal court-metre line. But there were still Bragian lines in his genuine poems (many more than at present no doubt), and the burdens especially are after the older model, and lines with the line-consonance in both halves are frequent.
Thiodwolf uses a rich vocabulary, and has many lines of great force. The opening of the second section of Haust-long, where the Thunder- god comes storming through the sky englobed in fire, is very fine, recalling Milton.
Thiodwolfs poem is a fountain to the mythologist, both as regards the story and, even more, the allusive synonyms.
There are but two sections of Haust-long presen'ed as citations in Edda, but they seem fairly perfect. The firsts with the prologue, tells the tale of the Rape of Idfwyn and the death of Thiazzi, thus paraphrased (from the poem) by Snorri, in the beginning of Bragi's Teaching : —
" He began the story there, how three of the Anses set forth from home, Woden and Loki and Honir, and journeyed over fell and forest, and were badly off for food. And when they came down into a certain dale, they saw a herd of oxen there and took one ox and fell to seething it. And when they thought that it must be sodden, they tried the meat, and, lo, it was not done ; and a second time, when an hour had gone by, they tried it again, and it was not done yet. Then they fell to talking among themselves as to what might be the cause thereof, when they heard a voice up in an oak above them, and he that sate there told them the reason why the meat was not done. They looked up, and it was an eagle, and no small one, that was sitting there. Then the eagle
§1.] THIOD WOLFS HAUST-LONG. n
spake. If ye will give me my fill of the ox, then the meat will be done. They consented so to do. Then he let himself stoop down out of the tree, and sate down to the meat, and straightway caught up both the thigh of the ox and both the shoulders.
" Then Loki grew wroth, and snatched up a great staff, and brandished it with all his might, and hit the eagle on the back. The eagle started at the blow, and flew up, and, lo, the staff was fast to the back of the eagle, and Loki'siiandsyoj/ to the other end. The eagle flew so high that Loki's.feet grazed the rocks and stocks and tree, and he thought that his arms would be torn from his shoulders. He cried out and begged the eagle hard for quarter ; but he said that Loki should never get loose, till he set him a day on which he would bring Idwyn with her apples out of Ansegarth. And Loki did so, and straightway he was loosed and went off to his companions; and nothing more is told of their journey before they got back home. But at the appointed hour Loki enticed Idwyn out of Ansegarth into a certain wood, telling her that he had found some apples, which she would think treasures, and bidding her take her apples with her, so as to be able to set them against these. And thither comes Thiazzi the giant in his eagle-skin, and takes up Idwyn and flies away with her into Thrym-ham to his dwelling. But the Anses became distressed at the vanishing, and soon began to grow hoary and old. Then the Anses held a moot, and enquired one of another what was the last seen of Idwyn ; and the last seen of her was, that she was going out of Ansegarth with Loki. Then Loki was taken and brought before the moot, and they promised him death or torture. And when he grew fearful thereat, he said that he would go and seek after Idwyn in Giant-land, if Freya would lend him the hawk-skin she had. And when he had put on the hawk-skin he flew northward into Giant- land, and reached Giant Thiazzi's in one day. He had rowed out to sea fisbingy and Idwyn was at home alone, so Loki turned her into the shape of a nut, and took her into his talons and flew oflf as hard as he could. But when Thiazzi came home and missed Idwyn, he took his eagle-skin, and flew after Loki, and flapped his eagle-wings in his flight. But when the Anses saw how the hawk was flying with the nut and the eagle flying after him, they went out in front of Ansegarth bearing thither loads of plane-chips. And when the hawk flew in over the fortress, he let himself alight just behind the fortress- wall ; and immediately the Anses kindled the plane-chips, but the eagle was not able to stay himself when he missed the hawk, and the fire caught in the eagle's plumage and stopped his flight. Then up came the Anses and slew the eagle that was giant Thiazzi inside the wall q/* Ansegarth, and this slaying is far famed."
The second, the tale of Thorns Wager of Battle with the monster Rungnir, is also paraphrased by Snorri in Skaldskaparmal in the following words: —
" Then Bragi told Egir that Thor was gone into the Eastern quarters to smite giants. But Woden rode Slipper into Giant-land, and came to the house of a giant whose name was Rungnir. Then Rungnir asked, who was the man that wore a golden helmet and was riding over sky and sea, and said that he had a wonderful good horse. Woden said that he would wager his head that there was not a horse in Giant-land as good. Rungnir said that it was a good horse, but that he had a bigger stepper, whose name was Goldmane [Gollfaxi]. (Something missing here,) Rungnir ' was angry, and leapt upon his horse and rode after him, and thought to pay him for his proud speech. Woden rode so hard that he was only
12 MYTHICAL COURT POEMS. [bk.vii.
just in sight ; but Rungnir was in such mighty giant-wrath that he never stayed till be galloped inside the gates of the Anses. And when he came into the doors of the hall the Anses bade him to the drinking ; he went into the hall therefore and called for drink to be brought him. Then they took the bowls that Thor was wont to drink out of, and Rungnir emptied them one after another. Now when he was drunken there was no lack of big words in bim ; he boasted that he could take up Walhall and carry it into Giant-land, and sink Ansegarth, and- slay all the gods save Freya and Sif, whom he would carry home captive with him. Freya was the only one that dared to bear drink to him, and he boasted that he would drink up all the Ale of the Anses. But when the Ariles were tired of his bragging, they called for Thor. Forthwith Thor came into the hall ; he was holding his Hammer aloft, and was very wroth, and asked by whose counsel it was that dog-minded Giants should be drinking there, and who it was that had given Rungnir safeguard to be in Walhall, and why Freya should be his cup-bearer, as at a guild-feast of the Anses. Then Rungnir answered, beholding Thor with no friendly eyes, saying that Woden had bidden him to the drinking, and that he was under his safeguard. Then Thor said that Rungnir should rue that bidding ere he left the halL Rungnir says that it were little glory for Thor the Champion to slay him weaponless as he was ; it were greater prowess if Thor dared to fight with him on the march at Rockgarth, and it was the greatest foolishness, said he, for me to have left my shield and hone at home, for if I had my weapons here we would try wager of battle now ; but as it stands now I charge thee with a craven's deed if thou slay me weaponless. Thor would by no means fail to come to the wager of battle, now that a battle-place was pitched for him, for no one had ever dared to challenge him before. Then Rungnir went his way and rode mightily till he came to Giant-land, and his journey was widely famed among the Giants, and especially that he had set a day for him and Thor to meet. The Giants thought there was great risk which of them should win the day. They feared evil from Thor if Rungnir should fall, because he was the strongest of them all. Then the Giants made a man at Rockgarth of clay ; he was nine leagues high and three broad under the arms, but they could not get a heart for him big enough to fit, so they got one out of a mare, and it was not steady within him when Thor came. Rungnir, as it is said, had a heart of hard stone, and pointed into three horns, and according to it is made the figure [fylfot] which is called Rungnir's heart ; his head was also of stone, his shield was of stone /oo, broad and thick, and he held this shield before him as he stood at Rockgarth and waited for Thor, and for a weapon he had a hone which he bore on his shoulder, and was not a man to cope with. On the other side of him stood the Giant of Clay, who was named Muck-calf, and he was very frightened, yea, it is said that he ... . when he saw Thor. Thor went forth to the set place of battle, and Thialfi [Delve] with him. Then Delve ran forward to where Rungnir stood and spoke to him, ' Thou art standing unwarily, O Giant, with thy shield before thee, for Thor hath seen thee, and he is going down into the earth and will come against thee from below.' Then Rungnir thrust the shield under his feet, and stood upon it, and took hold of his hone with both hands. And straightway he beheld lightnings and heard great thunder-peals, and saw Thor in his god's wrath. He came on mightily, and brandished his Hammer, and cast it at Rungnir from afar. Rungnir caught up the hone with both hands, and threw it against the Hammer, and it met the Hammer in its flight, and the hone broke
§!.]
THIOD WOLFS HAUST-LONG. 13
asuDder, and one half fell to earth, whence came all the rocks of hone, the other half crashed into Thor*s head so that he fell forward to the earth. But the Hammer Milner lit on the middle of Rungnir's head and broke the skull into little morsels, and he fell forward over Thor, so that his foot lay athwart Thor's neck. And Delve fought Muck-calf, and he fell with little ado. Then Pelve went to Thor, and tried to take Rungnir's foot off him, but could not even stir it. Then all the Anses, when they heard that Thor was fallen, tried to take the foot off his neck, but could not stir it. Then came (Magni) Main, the son of Thor and Ironsax, he was at that time three nights old, he cast Rungnir's foot off Thor, and said,* Little harm may it do thee, father, that I am come so late, I think that I would have smitten the Giant to death with my fist if I had met him ! ' Then Thor stood up and welcomed his son heartily, and said that he would be a big man of his hands ; ' and,' said he, * I will give thee the horse, Goldmane, that Rungnir owned.* Then spake Woden, saying that Thor did wrong to give that good horse to a giantess' son rather than to his own father. Thor went home to Thrudwong with the hone still in his head. Then there came a Sibyl whose name was Groa, the wife of Orwandil the Brave [Orion], she chaunted spell- songs over Thor, till the hone began to loosen. And when Thor felt this and began to think it likely that the hone would soon be out, he wished to repay Groa for her leechcraft and make her glad, so he told her this news, that he had waded over Sleet Bay [Elivoe]