Another continuation in the same vein as the last two… You’d think I’d look into these things ahead of time, and I usually do, but this time I didn’t. It’s okay though. I was thinking of posting a bunch of these anyway due to the fact that not everyone can find a copy of the Poetic Edda.
Oh, this post has more notes. They are italicized in parentheses.
Sigurth rode over Hindar Fell and made his way South to Frankland. On the fell he saw a bright light, as though a fire were burning there, and it shone to very heaven. When he drew near, he found there a wall of shields, and a banner loomed above it. He entered into this wall of shields ad saw that in it slept some one in full war weeds. Sigurth first lifted the helmet off the sleeper’s head, and then he saw that it was a woman. Her coat of mail was tight about her as though it were grown to the flesh. With his sword Gram he slit the byrnie, from the neck down, and also both sleeves, and took it off.
Then she awoke and sate up, and beheld Sigurth, and said:
“What slit my byrnie? How was broken my sleep?
Who lifted from me the leaden weight?”
He answered:
“‘Tis Sigmund’s bairn- on Fáfnir’s body
ravens batten- ’tis Sigurth’s brand.”
She said:
“Hail to thee, day! Hail, ye day’s sons!
^^^Hail, night and daughter of night!
With blithe eyes look on both of us:
^^^send to those sitting here speed!
“Hail to you, gods! Hail, goddesses!
^^^Hail, earth that givest to all!
Goodly spells and speech bespeak we from you,
^^^and healing hands, in this life.”
Sigurth sate him down and asked her name. She said her name was Sigrdrífa and that she was a valkyrie. She said that twain kings had fought.
“Was Hjalmgunnar hight a hoary warrior;
had Valfather vowed victory to him.
Was the other Agnar, Autha’s brother,
to whom none ever help had given.”
Sigrdrífa felled Hjalmgunnar in the battle, but Óthin in revenge pricked her with the sleep-thorn and said that she should never henceforth fight in battle, but be wedded. “But I too made a vow that I should never be wedded unto a man who knew fear.” (Then took she a horn full of mead and gave it to him, to bind him to her.)
She said:
“Long was my slumber, asleep was I long,
^^^long to the luckless is life:
’tis Valfather’s will that wake I could not,
^^^nor rid me of runes of sleep.”
Then Sigurth asked that she teach him wisdom, if so it be that she had knowledge from all the worlds.
Sigrdrífa said:
“Ale I bring thee, thou oak-of-battle,
with strength i-blent and brightest honor;
’tis mixed with magic and mighty songs,
with goodly spells, with-speeding runes.
“Learn victory runes if thou victory wantest,
^^^and have them on thy sword’s hilt-
on thy sword’s hilt some, on thy sword’s guard some,
^^^and call twice upon Týr.
“Learn ale runes eke, lest other man’s wife
^^^betray thee who trusted in her:
on thy beer horn scratch it, and the back of thy hand,
^^^and the Nauth rune on thy nails.
“Thy beaker bless to banish fear,
^^^and cast a leek in thy cup:
then know I that never thou needest fear
^^^that bale in thy beer there be.
“Learn help runes eke, if help thou wilt
^^^a woman to bring forth her babe:
on thy palms wear them and grasp her wrists,
^^^and ask the dísir’s aid.
“Learn sea runes eke if save thou wilt
^^^the sail-steeds on the sea:
on the bow scratch them, and on rudder blade,
^^^and etch them with fire in the oars:
howe’er beetling the billows and black the deep,
^^^yet comest thou safe from the sea.
“Limb runes learn thou, if a leech would’st be,
^^^and wishest wounds to heal:
on the bark scratch them of bole in the woods
^^^whose boughs bend to the east.
“Speech runes learn thou, to spite no one,
^^^lest out of hate he harm thee:
these wind thou, these weave thou,
^^^and gather them all together
when men to moot are met at the Thing,
^^^and all Thing-men are there.
“Mind runes learn thou if among men thou wilt
^^^be wiser than any wight:
them did guess, them did grave,
^^^them did hit upon Hrópt.
“… …. .. ….. … ….
made of the sap which seeped in drops
^^^out of Heithdraupnir’s head,
^^^out of Hoddrofnir’s horn.
“On the brink stood he with Brímir, the sword;
^^^on his head he had a helm:
^^^then muttered Mímir’s head
^^^wisely first this word,
^^^and sooth said of this:
“Said on the shield graven before the shining god which stands,
on Árvakr’s ear, and on Alsvith’s hoof,
on the wheel which turns ‘neath (Hrungnir’s bane’s) wain,
on Sleipnir’s teeth, and on the sleigh’s strap bands,
“On the paw of the bear and on Bragi’s tongue,
on the old wolf’s claw and on the eagle’s beak,
on the bloody wings and on the bridge’s head,
on the midwife’s hand and on the healing spoor,
“On glass and on gold and on good luck token,
in wine and in wort and on wonted seat,
on Gungnir’s point and on Grani’s breast,
on the norn-nail eke and the night owl’s beak.
“Off were scraped all which on were scratched,
^^^and mixed with the holy mead,
^^^and sent about and abroad.
The Æsir have them, the alfs have them,
^^^and some the wise Vanir have
^^^and some, mortal men.
“These beech runes be, and birth runes, too,
^^^and all ale runes,
^^^and mighty, magic runes:
for whoe’er unspoilt, and unspilt, eke,
^^^for his help will have them:
^^^gain he who grasps them,
^^^till draws near the doom of the gods!
“Now shalt thou choose, since choice thou hast,
^^^hero ‘neath shining helm,
to say or naught say: with thyself rests it!
^^^Meted out is all evil.”
Sigurth said:
“Flee I shall not though fey I know me:
^^^since a babe my breast knew no fear.
Thy loving counsel I lief would have
^^^as long as my life doth last.”
(“Sigurth’s reply: he will not flee the early death which she has, in stanzas probably lost, foretold would result from their union. Vǫlsunga saga, Chap. 21, has kept the gist of at least two other stanzas: ” ‘Wiser woman liveth not in the world than thou art… and this swear I, that I shall wed thee, for thou art after my wish.’ She answered: ‘Thee would I have though I had choice among all men.’ And that pledged they each other with oaths.” These stanzas no doubt formed the conclusion of the original poem. Sigurth’s words seem to have suggested the later addition of the remaining gnomic stanzas.”)
Sigrdrífa said:
“This counsel I first: of kinsmen of thine
^^^at no time fall thou foul:
curb thy revenge, though cause there be:
^^^’twill boot thy dying day.
“This other I counsel, that oath thou swear not
^^^but thou tell the truth:
for baleful doom follows breach of truce;
^^^ill fares the breaker of oaths.
“This third I counsel, that at Thing thou never
^^^bandy words with witless wight;
for unwise man full often says
^^^worser words than he knows.
“‘This well nowise if naught thou say’st:
^^^a craven thou’lt be called;
^^^{or taunted that true the charge.
^^^Fickle is homemade fame,
^^^but good it be gotten.}
make away with him when he waiteth him not,
^^^and reward thus the wicked lie.
(“{or taunted… be gotten}” These bracketed lines may have been a later addition. “make away… wicked lie.” is accepting Gering’s emendation.)
“That fourth I counsel, if foul witch live
^^^by the way thou wishest to fare:
to go on is better than be her guest,
^^^though that the night be near.
“Foresight is needful to the sons of men,
^^^where’er in the fray they fight;
oft harmful hags do haunt the way,
^^^who dull both weapon and wit.
“That counsel I fifth: though fair women,
^^^and brow-white, sit on bench:
let the silver-dight one not steal thy sleep,
^^^nor lure thou women to love!
“That counsel I sixth: though swaggering speech
^^^and unkind be made o’er the cups:
with drunken warriors no words thou bandy,
^^^for wine steals many a one’s wits.
“Quarrels and ale have often brought
^^^sorrow to sons of men-
foul death to some, ill fate to others:
^^^much woe is wrought in the world.
“That counsel I seventh: if for cause thou fight
^^^against stouthearted heroes:
’tis better to battle than be burned alive
^^^within his own house and home.
“That counsel I eighth, to keep thee from evil,
^^^nor dally with dastardly deeds;
no maiden mar thou, nor married woman
^^^lure thou to love with thee.
“That counsel I ninth, that corpses thou bury,
^^^wheresoe’er on earth thou find them-
whether sickness slew them, or in the sea they drowned,
^^^or whether thy fell in fight.
(I have left out a stanza here that was a later interpolation added by Christians. However, I am including this note of them having added it to remind us all of how followers of Judeo-Christian religions *SPIT* damage and destroy the European religion and culture. They also destroy the European species, but that would be far too off-topic to discuss right now.)
“That counsel I tenth, that thou trust never
^^^oath of an outlaw’s son;
whether art his brother’s bane, or felled his father:
a wolf oft sleeps in his son, though young,
^^^and glad of the gold though he be.
“Seldom sleepeth the sense of wrong
^^^nor, either, hate and heartache.
Both his wits and weapons a warrior needs
^^^who would fain be foremost among folk.
“That counsel I eleventh: to keep thee from evil,
^^^whence’er it may threaten thee:
not long the lord’s life, I ween me.
^^^Have fateful feuds arisen.”
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