{"collection":"Classics","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/cla/north/voluspa.htm","path":"cla/north/voluspa.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/cla/north/voluspa.htm","text":"Heidi men call me when their homes I visit,\nA far seeing Volva, wise in talismans.\nCaster of spells, cunning in magic.\nTo wicked women welcome always.\nArm rings and necklaces, Odhinn you gave me\nTo learn my lore, to learn my magic:\nWider and wider through all worlds I see.\nOutside I sat by myself when you came,\nTerror of the gods, and gazed in my eyes.\nWhat do you ask of me? Why tempt me?\nOdhinn, I know where your eye is concealed,\nHidden away in the well of Mimir:\nMimir each morning his mead drinks\nFrom Valfather's pledge. Well would you know more?\nOf Heimdal too and his horn I know.\nHidden under the holy tree\nDown on it pours a precious stream from Valfather's pledge\nWell would you know more?\nSilence I ask of the sacred folk,\nSilence of the kith and kin of Heimdal:\nAt your will Valfather, I shall well relate\nThe old songs of men I remember best.\nI tell of giants from times forgotten.\nThose who fed me in former days:\nNine worlds I can reckon, nine roots of the tree.\nThe wonderful ash, way under the ground\nWhen Ymir lived long ago\nWas no sand or sea, no surging waves.\nNowhere was there earth nor heaven above.\nBur a grinning gap and grass nowhere.\nThe sons of Bur then built up the lands.\nMoulded in magnificence middle-Earth:\nSun stared from the south on the stones of their hall,\nFrom the ground there sprouted green leeks.\nSun turned from the south, sister of Moon,\nHer right arm rested on the rim of Heaven;\nShe had no inkling where her hall was,\nNor Moon a notion of what might he had,\nThe planets knew not where their places were.\nThe high gods gathered in council\nIn their hall of judgement. all the rulers:\nTo Night and to Nightfall their names gave,\nThe Morning they named and the Mid-Day,\nMid-Winter, Mid-Summer, for the assigning of years.\nAt Ida's Field the Aesir met:\nTemple and altar they timbered and raised,\nSet up a forge to smithy treasures,\nTongs they fashioned and tools wrought;\nPlayed chess in the court and cheerful were;\nGold they lacked not, the gleaming metal\nThen came three, the Thurs maidens,\nRejoicing in their strength, from Giant-home.\nThe high Gods gathered in council.\nIn their hall of judgement: Who of the dwarves\nShould mould man by master craft\nFrom Brimir's blood and Blain' s limbs?\nMotsognir was their mighty ruler,\nGreatest of dwarves, and Durin after him :\nThe dwarves did as Durin directed,\nMany man forms made from the earth.\nNyi and Nidi, Nordri, Sudri, Austri and Vestri, Althjof,\nDvalin, Bivor,\nBavor Bombur, Nori, An and Anar, Ai, Mjodvitnir, Veignr and Gandalf,\nVindalf, Thorin, Thror and Thrain, Thekkur, Litur, Vitur, Nar\nand Nyradur,\nFili, Kili, Fundin, Nali Hefti, Vili, Hanar, Sviur, Billing, Bruni,\nBildur,\nand Buri, Frar, Hornbori Fraegur, Loni, Aurvangur, Jari, Eikinskjaldi:\n(All Durin's folk I have duly named,)\nI must tell of the dwarves in Dvalin' s host;\nLike lions they were in Lofar's time:\nIn Juravale's marsh they made their dwelling,\nFrom their Stone hall set out on journeys,\nThere was Draupnir and Dolgthrasir, Har, Haugspori, Hlevangur,\nGloi, Dori,\nOri, Dufur, Andvari, Skirvir, Virvir Skafidur, Ai, Alf and Yngvi,\nEikinskjaldi, Fjalar and Frosti, Finn and Ginnar: Men will remember\nwhile\nmen live\nThe long line of Lofar's forbears.\nThen from the host three came,\nGreat, merciful, from the God's home:\nAsh and Elm on earth they found,\nFaint, feeble, with no fate assigned them\nBreath they had not, nor blood nor senses,\nNor language possessed, nor life-hue:\nOdhinn gave them breath, Haenir senses,\nBlood and life hue Lothur gave.\nI know an ash tree, named Yggdrasil:\nSparkling showers are shed on its leaves\nThat drip dew, into the dales below,\nBy Urd's well it waves evergreen,\nStands over that still pool,\nNear it a bower whence now there come\nThe Fate Maidens, first Urd,\nSkuld second, scorer of runes,\nThen Verdandi, third of the Norns:\nThe laws that determine the lives of men\nThey fixed forever and their fate sealed.\nThe first war in the world I well remember,\nWhen Gullveig was spitted on spear-points\nAnd burned in the hall of. the high god:\nThrice burned, thrice reborn,\nOften laid low, she lives yet,\nThe gods hastened to their hall of judgement,\nSat in council to discover who\nHad tainted all the air with corruption\nAnd Odhinn's maid offered to the giants,\nAt the host Odhinn hurled his spear\nIn the first world-battle; broken was the plankwall\nOf the gods fortress: the fierce Vanes\nCaused war to occur in the fields.\nThe gods hastened to their hall of judgement,\nSat in council to discover who\nHad tainted all the air with corruption\nAnd Odhinn's maid offered to the giants.\nOne Thorr felled in his fierce rage;\nSeldom he sits when of such he hears:\nOaths were broken, binding vows,\nSolemn agreements sworn between them.\nValkyries I saw, coming from afar,\nEagerly riding to aid the Goths;\nSkuld bore one shield, Skogul another\nGunn, Hild, Gondul and Spearskogul:\nDuly have I named the daughters of Odhinn,\nThe valiant riders the Valkyries.\nBaldur I saw the bleeding God,\nHis fate still hidden, Odhinn's Son:\nTall on the plain a plant grew,\nA slender marvel, the mistletoe.\nFrom that fair shrub, shot by Hodur,\nFlew the fatal dart that felled the god, .\nBut Baldur' s brother was born soon after:\nThough one night old, Odhinn's Son\nTook a vow to avenge that death.\nHis hands he washed not nor his hair combed .\nTill Baldur's bane was borne to the pyre:,\nDeadly the bow drawn by Vali,\nThe strong string of stretched gut,\nBut Frigga wept in Fensalir\nFor the woe of Valhalla. Well, would you know more?\nI see one in bonds by the boiling springs;\nLike Loki he looks, loathsome to view:\nThere Sigyn sits, sad by her husband,\nIn woe by her man. Well would you know more?\nFrom the east through Venom Valley runs\nOver jagged rocks the River Gruesome.\nNorth, in Darkdale, stands the dwelling place\nOf Sindri's kin, covered with gold;\nA hall also in Everfrost,\nThe banquet hall of Brimir the giant.\nA third I see, that no sunlight reaches,\nOn Dead Man's Shore: the doors face northward,\nThrough its smoke vent venom drips,\nSerpent skins enskein that hall.\nMen wade there tormented by the stream,\nVile murderers, men forsworn\nAnd artful seducers of other mens wives:\nNidhogg sucks blood from the bodies of the dead\nThe wolf rends them. Well, would you know more?\nIn the east dwells a crone, in Ironwood:\nThe brood of Fenris are bred there\nWolf-monsters, one of whom\nEventually shall devour the sun.\nThe giants watchman, joyful Eggthur\nSits on his howe and harps well:\nThe red cock, called All-Knower\nBoldly crows from Birdwood.\nGoldencomb to the gods crows\nWho wakes the warriors in Valhalla:\nA soot red hen also calls\nFrom Hel's hall, deep under the ground.\nLoud howls Garm before Gnipahellir,\nBursting his fetters, Fenris runs:\nFurther in the future afar I behold\nThe twilight of the gods who gave victory.\nBrother shall strike brother and both fall,\nSisters' sons defiled with incest;\nEvil be on earth, an age of. whoredom,\nOf sharp sword-play and shields clashing,\nA wind-age, a wolf-age till the world ruins:\nNo man to another shall mercy show.\nThe waters are troubled, the waves surge up:\nAnnouncing now the knell of Fate,\nHeimdal winds his horn aloft,\nOn Hel's road all men tremble\nYggdrasil trembles, the towering ash\nGroans in woe; the wolf is loose:\nOdhinn speaks with the head of Mimir\nBefore he is swallowed by Surt's kin.\nFrom the east drives Hrym, lifts up his shield\nThe squamous serpent squirms with rage\nThe great worm with the waves contending\nThe pale-beaked eagle pecks at the dead,\nShouting for joy: the ship Naglfar\nSails out from the east, at its helm Loki\nWith the children of darkness, the doom-bringers\nOffspring of monsters, allies of the wolf,\nAll who Byleists's brother follow.\nWhat of the gods? What of the elves?\nGianthome groans the gods are in council\nThe dwarves grieve before their door of stone,\nMasters of walls. Well, would you know more?\nSurt with the bane of branches comes\nFrom the south, on his sword the sun of the Valgods,\nCrags topple, the crone falls headlong,\nMen tread Hel's road, the Heavens split open.\nA further woe falls upon Hlin\nAs Odhinn comes forth to fight the wolf;\nThe killer of Beli battles with Surt:\nNow shall fall Frigga's beloved.\nNow valiant comes Valfather's son,\nVidar, to vie with Valdyr in battle,\nPlunges his sword into he son of Hvedrung,\nAvenging his father with a fell thrust.\nNow the son of Hlodyn and Odhinn comes\nTo fight with Fenris; fiercest of warriors\nHe mauls in his rage all Middle-Earth;\nMen in fear all flee their homesteads;\nNine paces back steps Bur's son\nRetreats from the worm of taunts unafraid.\nNow death is the portion of doomed men,\nRed with blood the buildings of gods,\nThe sun turns black in the summer after,\nWinds whine. Well, would know more?\nEarth sinks in the sea, the sun turns black,\nCast down from Heaven are the hot stars,\nFumes reek, into flames burst,\nThe sky itself is scorched with fire.\nI see Earth rising a second time\nOut of the foam, fair and green;\nDown from the fells fish to capture,\nWings the eagle; waters flow.\nAt lda's Field the Aesir meet:\nThey remember the worm of Middle-Earth,\nPonder again the great twilight\nAnd the ancient runes of the high god\nBoards shall be found of a beauty to wonder at,\nBoards of gold in the grass long after,\nThe chess boards they owned in the olden days,\nUnsown acres shall harvests bear,\nEvil be abolished, Baldur return\nAnd Hropt's hall with Hod rebuild,\nWise gods. Well, would you know more?\nHaenir shall wield the wand of prophecy,\nThe sons two brothers set up their dwelling\nIn wide Windhome. Well, would you know more?\nFairer than sunlight, I see a hall\nA hall thatched with gold in Gimle:\nKind Lords shall live there in delight for ever.\nNow rides the Strong One to Rainbow Door,\nPowerful from heaven, the All-Ruler:\nFrom the depths below a drake comes flying\nThe dark dragon from Darkfell,\nBears on his opinions the bodies of men,\nSoars overhead I sink now","title":"Voluspa (The Song Of The Sybil)","type":"page"}