Page:Poeticedda00belluoft.djvu/144

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

Poetic Edda

7.[1] "To me more dear  than in days of old
 Was ever maiden to man;
But no one of gods  or elves will grant
 That we both together should be."

  Skirnir spake:
8.[2] "Then give me the horse  that goes through the dark
 And magic flickering flames;
And the sword as well  that fights of itself
 Against the giants grim."

  Freyr spake:
9. "The horse will I give thee  that goes through the dark
 And magic flickering flames,
And the sword as well  that will fight of itself
 If a worthy hero wields it."

  1. ↑ Snorri's paraphrase of the poem is sufficiently close so that his addition of another sentence to Freyr's speech makes it probable that a stanza has dropped out between 7 and 8. This has been tentatively reconstructed, thus: "Hither to me  shalt thou bring the maid, / And home shalt thou lead her here, / If her father wills it  or wills it not, / And good reward shalt thou get." Finn Magnusen detected the probable omission of a stanza here as early as 1821.
  2. ↑ The sword: Freyr's gift of his sword to Skirnir eventually proves fatal, for at the last battle, when Freyr is attacked by Beli, whom he kills bare-handed, and later when the fire-demon, Surt, slays him in turn, he is weaponless; cf. Voluspo, 53 and note. Against the giants grim: the condition of this line makes it seem like an error in copying, and it is possible that it should be identical with the fourth line of the next stanza.

[110]

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.