From the Ballad of Alvis

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Lays of the Gods Voluspo Hovamol Vafthruthnismol Grimnismol Skirnismol Harbarthsljoth Hymiskvitha Lokasenna Thrymskvitha Alvissmol Baldrs Draumar Rigsthula Hyndluljoth Svipdagsmol Lays of the Heroes Völundarkvitha Helgakvitha Hjorvarthssonar Helgakvitha Hundingsbana I Helgakvitha Hundingsbana II Fra Dautha Sinfjotla Gripisspo Reginsmol Fafnismol Sigrdrifumol Brot af Sigurtharkvithu Guthrunarkvitha I Sigurtharkvitha en Skamma Helreith Brynhildar Drap Niflunga Guthrunarkvitha II, en Forna Guthrunarkvitha III Oddrunargratr Atlakvitha en Grönlenzka Atlamol en Grönlenzku Guthrunarhvot Hamthesmol

Dreams of Balder - Baldrs Draumar

Baldrs Draumar is found in the Arnamagnæan Codex. The poem seems to have been preserved in excellent condition. The poem is essentially dramatic, summarizing a familiar story.

Odin spoke: "Wise-woman, cease not!" 8

Fragment of a Sigurth Lay - Brot af Sigurtharkvithu

The extant fragment shows signs of being part of a poem of not less than eighty or a hundred stanzas, possibly more.
The hero Sigurth comes to the dwelling of Brynhild's brother-in-law, where he meets Brynhild and they swear oaths of fidelity anew. Then the scene shifts: Guthrun, Gjuki's daughter, has a terrifying dream, and visits Brynhild to have it explained, which the latter does by foretelling pretty much everything that is going to happen. Guthrun returns home, and Sigurth soon arrives. Grimhild, mother of Gunnar and Guthrun, gives him a magic draught which makes him forget Brynhild, and shortly thereafter he marries Guthrun.
Then Sigurth wins Brynhild for Gunnar.
After Sigurth has spent three nights with Brynhild, laying his sword between them, he and Gunnar return home, while Brynhild goes to the dwelling of her brother-in-law, Heimir, and makes ready for her marriage with Gunnar. The wedding takes place, but is soon followed by a quarrel between Guthrun and Brynhild. Gudrun betrays the fact that it was Sigurth, and not Gunnar, who did the feats that won Brynhild for Gunnar. Brynhild then tells Gunnar that she had given herself wholly to Sigurth before she had become Gunnar's wife.
Soon afterward Gunnar and his brother Hogni deceived Sigurd in his trust of them and fell upon him when he was lying down and unprepared south of the Rhine somewhere.

The grey horse mourns by his dead master. 7

From the Ballad of Alvis, Alvissmol

The poem is found only in Regius, where it follows the Thrymskvitha. Manuscripts of the Prose Edda give the name of the poem as Alvissmol, Alsvinnsmol or Olvismol. Many of the Norse words can be properly rendered in English only by more or less extended phrases.

Thor to the dwarf Alvis (All-Knowing): You look like a giant. You were not born for the bride . . . Over the bride her father has foremost right. 2, 4

NOTE. The bride in question is Thor's daughter; Thruth ("Might). Her mother was Sif, Thor's wife.

Alvis: What men name 'clouds', gods call 'Rain-Hope'. 18

Thor: What do they call the wind, that widest fares in each and every world? What do they call the calm that lies quiet in each and every world? 19, 21

Thor: What do they call the fire that flames for me in each of all the worlds? 25
Alvis: The gods call it 'Flame'. The Wanes call it 'Wildfire'.

NOTE. Wildfire: the word may mean any one of various things, including "Wave," which is not unlikely.

Thor: What do they call the night . . . in each and every world?
Alvis: 'Darkness' gods name it, 'The Hood' the holy ones say. 30

Thor: What do they call the seed that is sown by men in each and every world? 31
Alvis: "Men call it 'Grain,' and the gods 'Corn', 'Growth' in the world the Wanes say. 32

From the Greenland Lay of Atli - Atlakvitha en Grønlenzka

Attila, the king of the Huns from 434 to 453, appears under the name Atli or Atle in Icelandic sagas. There are two Atli poems in the Codex Regius: the Lay of Atli (this one) and the Ballad of Atli. The two Atli poems deal with the visit of the sons of Gjuki to Atli's court, their deaths, and the subsequent revenge of their sister, Guthrun, Atli's wife, on her husband. It is probable that both poems belong to the 1000s, the shorter Atlakvitha being generally dated from the first quarter of the 1000s, and the longer Atlamol some fifty years or more later. The general atmosphere is essentially Norse - one of violence and revenge.
The translation of the Atlakvitha is rendered peculiarly difficult by irregularity of metre, by faultiness of the transmission, and by the exceptionally large number of words found nowhere else in Old Norse. The result is much guesswork as to meanings in parts of the poem. And there is not much wisdom to glean from it either.

What is your counsel, young hero, when we hear such things? 6

Mine own is better than all the Huns' treasure. 7

From the Greenland Ballad of Atli - Atlamol en Grønlenzku

A story brought to the North from the South Germanic lands could be adapted to the understanding and tastes of its hearers in the late 1000s without any material change of the basic narrative.

Bright shone the morning, the men all were ready . . . their minds knew not wisdom . . . All the morning they fought. 27, 49

From a wife bringing slaughter small joy could I win. 51

A harp Gunnar seized [his hands were tied], with his toes he struck it so well that the women all wept. And the men, when clear they heard it, lamented. The rafters burst. 62

Literature

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