Page:Book of Were-wolves.djvu/38
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THE WERE-WOLF IN THE NORTH.
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goes on gandreið, or wolf's-ride, he is full of the rage and malignity of the creatures whose powers and passions he has assumed.
I will give a few instances of each of the three methods of changing bodies mentioned above. Freyja and Frigg had their falcon dresses in which they visited different regions of the earth, and Loki is said to have borrowed these, and to have then appeared so precisely like a falcon, that he would have escaped detection, but for the malicious twinkle of his eyes. In the Vælundar kviða is the following passage:—
I. Meyjar flugu sunnan Myrkvið igögnum Alvitr unga Orlög drýgja; þær á savarströnd Settusk at hvilask, Dró sir suðrœnar Dýrt lín spunnu. II. Ein nam þeirra Egil at verja Fögr mær fíra Faðmi ljósum; Önnur var Svanhvít, Svanfjaðrar dró; En in þriðja þeirra systir Var i hvítan Háls Völundar. |
I. From the south flew the maidens Athwart the gloom, Alvit the young, To fix destinies; They on the sea-strand Sat them to rest, These damsels of the south Fair linen spun. II. One of them took Egil to press, Fair maid, in her Dazzling arms. Another was Svanhwit, Who wore swan feathers; And the third, Their sister, Pressed the white Neck of Vœlund. |