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Voluspo

28.[1] Alone I sat  when the Old One sought me,
The terror of gods,  and gazed in mine eyes:
"What hast thou to ask?  why comest thou hither?
Othin, I know  where thine eye is hidden."

29.[2] I know where Othin's  eye is hidden,
Deep in the wide-famed  well of Mimir;
Mead from the pledge  of Othin each morn
Does Mimir drink:  would you know yet more?

30.[3] Necklaces had I  and rings from Heerfather,
Wise was my speech  and my magic wisdom;
..........
Widely I saw  over all the worlds.

  1. ↑ The Hauksbok version omits all of stanzas 28-34, stanza 27 being there followed by stanzas 40 and 41. Regius indicates stanzas 28 and 29 as a single stanza. Bugge puts stanza 28 after stanza 22, as the second stanza of his reconstructed poem. The Volva here addresses Othin directly, intimating that, although he has not told her, she knows why he has come to her, and what he has already suffered in his search for knowledge regarding his doom. Her reiterated "would you know yet more?" seems to mean: "I have proved my wisdom by telling of the past and of your own secrets; is it your will that I tell likewise of the fate in store for you?" The Old One: Othin.
  2. ↑ The first line, not in either manuscript, is a conjectural emendation based on Snorri's paraphrase. Bugge puts this stanza after stanza 20.
  3. ↑ This is apparently the transitional stanza, in which the Volva, rewarded by Othin for her knowledge of the past (stanzas 1-29) is induced to proceed with her real prophecy (stanzas 31-66). Some editors turn the stanza into the third person, making it a narrative link. Bugge, on the other hand, puts it

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