The Wanderer's Havamal by Crawford Jackson;

The Wanderer's Havamal by Crawford Jackson;

Author:Crawford, Jackson;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hackett Publishing Company, Incorporated
Published: 2019-10-20T16:00:00+00:00


Related Texts

Darraðarljóð

The poem Darraðarljóð is included in the text of chapter 157 of Brennu-Njáls Saga “Saga of Burned Njál,” the longest and one of the most famous of the Sagas of Icelanders, during a vision of a character named Dorruđ. Darraðarljóð would thus mean “Dorruđ’s Poem/Song,” but the poem is probably much older than the saga in which it is framed, and rather than a man’s name the meaning of the poem’s title was likely originally intended as “Song of the Spear (dǫrruðr).”

Below, I include the immediately preceding text of the saga as well.

*

On Friday morning it so happened on Caithness that a man named Dorruđ walked outside. He saw twelve people riding together to a wealthy woman’s quarters, and then they all disappeared. He looked through a window that was there, and he saw that there were women inside and they had set up a loom. They were using men’s heads for the weights, men’s guts for the weft and yarn, and swords and arrows for the rods. They spoke these stanzas:

1. The threads are open,

meaning death in battle!

It’s raining blood

from the crossbeam.

Now a gray weave

of men is here,

which the son-killer’s

lady-friends

will fill in

with red cloth.

2. The weave is woven

with men’s guts,

and weighed down hard

with their heads.

Blood-covered spears

are the rods,

the beam is iron-covered,

and arrows shake it.

We make our war-weave

out of swords.

3. Hild is weaving

and Hjorthrimul,

Sanngríđ, and Svipul

use drawn swords.

Spear will break,

shield will break,

a helmet-chopping sword

will ruin shields.

4. We spin, we spin,

a weave of spears,

which the young king

had before.

We’ll go forward

and wade into the fight,

where our friends

exchange weapon-blows.

5. We spin, we spin

a weave of spears,

and then we follow

the young king.

Guđ and Gondul,

who guarded him,

saw the fighters’

bloody shields.

6. We spin, we spin

a weave of spears,

where able fighters’

flags are flying.

Let us not

be careless with his life;

we Valkyries have

the choice of the dead.

7. Those armies

from the settlements

in the far peninsulas

will rule these lands;

I say the rich king

is marked to fall.

Now the ruler falls,

pierced by spearpoints.

8. And now the Irish

will suffer miserably,

that agony will never

leave the Irish people.

Now the weave is woven,

the field is bloody,

this enormous loss of life

will become famous.

9. Now it is horrible

to look upon

as bloody clouds

cross the sky.

The very sky is red

with men’s blood,

while we battle-watchers

sing away.

10. We spoke right

about the young king,

many victory-songs,

we sing well!

Let the one listening

learn our spear-flight song,

let him say it

to others!

11. Let us leave, ride our

bare-back horses hard,

with drawn swords

we’ll ride away.

Eiríksmál and Hákonarmál

Eiríksmál (“Words of/for Eirik”) is a poem in Eddic style commissioned in memory of Norwegian King Eirík Bloodaxe (Old Norse Eiríkr blóðøx) by his wife Gunnhild after his death in AD 954. The poem is not preserved in its entirety, but the nine stanzas that survive paint a picture of Óđin preparing Valhalla for Eirík’s arrival while speaking to Bragi (a god of poetry) and the famous human heroes Sigmund and Sinfjotli (well known from The Saga of the Volsungs).

Hákonarmál (“Words of/for Hakon”) is a poem of similar style and content, composed in honor of Norwegian King Hákon the Good (Old Norse Hákon góði) after his death in AD 961 at the Battle of Fitjar on the island of Stord.



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