The Poetic Edda by Anonymous

Author:Anonymous
Language: eng
Format: azw
Published: 2013-05-29T16:00:00+00:00

Poetic Edda

17. Early then in wolf-wood asked

The mighty king of the southern maid, If with the hero home would she Come that night; the weapons clashed.

18. Down from her horse sprang Hogni's daugh-

ter,— The shields were still,— and spake to the hero: "Other tasks are ours, methinks. Than drinking beer with the breaker of rings.

19. "My father has pledged his daughter fair As bride to Granmar's son so grim; But, Helgi, I once Hothbrodd called

As fine a king as the son of a cat.

17. Wolf-wood: dark forest; the original word is not altogether clear. Southern: this variety of Valkyrie, like the swan-maidens of the Vblundarkvitha, was clearly regarded as of southern (i.e., German) origin. Here again there is a confusion of traditions; the Valkyries of the Foluspo were as essentially Norse as any part of the older mythology. I doubt if a poet much earlier than the author of the first Helgi Hundingsbane lay would have made his Sigrun, daughter of Hogni, a Valkyrie. It is to be noted that the same complication appears in the Sigurth story, where the undoubted Valkyrie, Brynhild-Sigrdrifa (the latter name is really only an epithet) is hopelessly mixed up with the quite human Brynhild, daughter of Buthli.

18. Breaker of rings: generous prince, because the breaking of rings was the customary form of distributing gold.

19. Granmar: the annotator gives an account of him and his family in the prose following stanza 12 of Helgakvitha Hund-ingsbana II.

20. No gap indicated in the manuscript; some editors combine the stanza with the fragmentary stanza 21, and others fill in with "And home will carry Hogni's daughter."

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