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Snorri Sturluson
e d d a
Translated and edited by
A N T H O N Y F A U L K E S
University o f
Birmingham
E V E R Y M A N
J . M . D E N T • L O N D O N
C H A R L E S E. T U T T L E
V E R M O N T
C o v e r illustration :
The legend reads ‘Here Odin is
riding the horse Sleipner. It is
the best of all horses’ (see p. 36).
Introduction, bibliography, indexes and textual editing
© David Campbell Publishers 1987
Chronology and Synopsis © J. M. Dent 1995
All rights reserved
First published in Everyman in 1987
Reissued 19 9 2, 1995
Reprinted 19 9 7, 1998, 2000, 2001
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ISBN
o 460 87616 3
C O N T E N T S
Note on the Author and Editor vi
Chronology o f Early Icelandic Literature viii
Introduction xi
Select Bibliography xxiv
P R O L O G U E
I
G Y L F A G IN N IN G
7
S K A L D S K A P A R M A L
5 9
H A T T A T A L
1 6 5
Text Summaries
2.2.1
Annotated Index o f Names
2 2 9
Index o f Metrical Terms
2 6 0
Skaldskaparmal
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]
mothers, guardian of the gods, as was written above, or the white
As, Loki’s enemy, recoverer of Freyia’s necklace. A sword is called
HeimdalPs head; it is said he was struck through with a man’s
head. He is the subject of the poem Heimdalargaldr, and ever
since the head has been called Heimdall’s doom: man’s doom is an
expression for sword. Heimdall is the owner of Gulitopp. He is
also the visitor to Vagasker and Singastein; on that occasion he
contended with Loki for the Brisingamen. He is also known as
Vindhler. Ulf Uggason composed a long passage in Husdrapa
based on this story, and it is mentioned there that they were in the
form of seals. Also son of Odin.
How shall Tyr be referred to? By calling him the one-handed As
and feeder of the wolf, battle-god, son of Odin.
How shall Bragi be referred to? By calling him Idunn’s husband,
inventor of poetry (brag) and the long-bearded As. It is from his
name that the expression ‘beard-fcragf comes for someone who
has a big beard. Also son of Odin.
How shall Vidar be referred to? He may be called the silent As,
possessor of the iron shoe, enemy and slayer of Fenriswolf, the
gods’ avenging As, father’s homestead-inhabiting As and son of
Odin, brother of the Aisir.
How shall Vali be referred to? By calling him son of Odin and
Rind, stepson of Frigg, brother of the Aisir, Baldr’s avenging As,
enemy of Hod and his slayer, father’s homestead-inhabiter.
How shall Hod be referred to? By calling him the blind As,
Baldr’s slayer, shooter of mistletoe, son of Odin, Hel’s com
panion, Vali’s enemy.
How shall Ull be referred to? By calling him son of Sif, stepson
of Thor, ski-As, bow-As, hunting As, shield-As.
How shall Hrnnir be referred to? By calling him Odin’s table-
companion or comrade or confidant and the swift As and the long
foot and mud-king.
How shall Loki be referred to? By calling him son of Farbauti
and Laufey, of Nal, brother of Byleist and Helblindi, father of
Vanargand, i.e. Fenriswolf, and of Iormungand, i.e. the Midgard
serpent, and Hel’s and Nari’s and Ali’s relative and father,
brother, comrade and table-companion of Odin and the Aisir,
Geirrod’s visitor and casket-ornament, thief from giants, of goat
and Brisingamen and Idunn’s apples, relative of Sleipnir, husband
76
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1 7
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Skaldskaparmal
of Sigyn, enemy of gods, Sif’s hair-harmer, maker of mischief, the
cunning As, accuser and tricker of the gods, contriver of Baldr’s
death, the bound one, wrangler with Heimdall and Skadi. As Ulf
Uggason says here:
Renowned defender [Heimdall] of the powers’ way [Bif
rost], kind of counsel, competes with Farbauti’s terribly sly
son at Singastein. Son of eight mothers plus one, mighty of
mood, is first to get hold of the beautiful sea-kidney [jewel,
Brisingamen]. I announce it in strands of praise.
Here it is mentioned that Heimdall is son of nine mothers.
Now there shall be told more of the underlying stories from
which those kennings just listed have originated, and of which the
origins have not already been told, just as Bragi told Aigir how
Thor had gone to eastern parts to thrash trolls, but Odin rode
Sleipnir into Giantland and arrived at a giant’s called Hrungnir.
Then Hrungnir asked what sort of person this was with the golden
helmet riding sky and sea, and said he had a marvellously good
horse. Odin said he would wager his head on it that there would
be no horse as good to be found in Giantland. Hrungnir said it
was a good horse, but declared he had a horse that must be much
longer-paced, it was called Gullfaxi. Hrungnir had got angry and
leaped up on his horse and galloped after Odin, intending to pay
him back for his boasting. Odin galloped so hard that he kept
ahead on the next rise in the ground, and Hrungnir was in such a
great giant fury that the first thing he knew was that he had rushed
in through the As-gates. And when he got to the hall doors, Aisir
invited him in for a drink. He went into the hall and demanded
that he should be given a drink. Then the goblets that Thor
normally drank out of were brought out, and Hrungnir drained
each one. And when he became drunk there was no lack of big
words: he said he was going to remove Val-hall and take it to
Giantland, but bury Asgard and kill all the gods, except that he
was going to take Freyia and Sif home with him, and Freyia was
the only one then who dared to bring him drink, and he declared
he was going to drink all the Aisir’s ale. And when the Aisir got
tired of his boasting they invoked the name of Thor. Immediately
Thor entered the hall with hammer raised up and in great anger
77
Skaldskaparmal
and asked who was responsible for cunning giants being there
drinking, and who had guaranteed Hrungnir safety while he was
in Val-hall and why Freyia should be serving him drink as if at the
Aisir’s banquet. Then Hrungnir replied, looking at Thor with no
friendly eyes, and said that Odin had invited him to a drink and
that he was under his protection. Then Thor said that Hrungnir
was going to regret that invitation before he got out. Hrungnir
said it would be no honour to Asa-Thor to kill him when he was
unarmed, whereas it would be a greater proof of his valour if he
dared to fight with him on the frontier at Griotunagardar.
‘And it has been a very foolish thing for me to do,’ he said, ‘to
leave behind at home my shield and whetstone, but if I had my
weapons here, we would hold the duel now, but as it is 1 declare
you will be guilty of baseness if you go and kill me when I am
unarmed.’
Thor was eager not to let anything stop him from going to
single combat when he had been challenged to a duel, for no one
had ever done that to him before. Then Hrungnir went off on his
way and galloped mightily until he got into Giantland, and his
journey was very widely talked of among the giants, together with
the fact that an appointment had been made between him and
Thor. The giants felt there was a great deal at stake for them as to
which one won the victory. They would have little good to look
forward to from Thor if Hrungnir died, for he was the strongest of
them. Then the giants made a person at Griotunagardar of clay,
and he was nine leagues high and three broad beneath the arms,
but they could not get a heart big enough to suit him until they
took one out of a certain mare, and this turned out not to be
steady in him when Thor came. Hrungnir had a heart that is
renowned, made of solid stone and spiky with three points just
like the symbol for carving called Hrungnir’s heart has ever since
been made. His head was also of stone. His shield was also stone,
broad and thick, and he held the shield before him as he stood at
Griotunagardar waiting for Thor, and he had a whetstone as
weapon and rested it on his shoulder and he did not look at all
pleasant. On one side of him stood the clay giant, whose name
was Mokkurkalfi, and he was quite terrified. They say he wet
himself when he saw Thor. Thor went to keep his appointment for
the duel, and with him Thialfi. Then Thialfi ran on ahead to where
[17]
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Skaldskaparmal
Hrungnir was standing and said to him:
‘You are standing unguardedly, giant, you’ve got your shield in
front of you, but Thor has seen you and he is travelling by the
lower route underground, and he is going to come at you from
below.’
Then Hrungnir shoved the shield beneath his feet and stood on
it, and held the whetstone with both hands. Next he saw lightnings
and heard great thunders. Then he saw Thor in an As-rage, he was
travelling at an enormous rate and swung his hammer and threw
it from a great distance at Hrungnir. Hrungnir raised the whet
stone with both hands, threw it in return. It met the hammer in
flight, the whetstone, and the whetstone broke in two. One piece
fell to the ground, and from it have come all whetstone rocks. The
other piece crashed into Thor’s head so that he fell forwards to the
ground, but the hammer Miollnir hit the middle of Hrungnir’s
head and shattered his skull into small fragments, and he fell
forwards over Thor so that his leg lay across Thor’s neck. Thialfi
attacked Mokkurkalfi, and he fell with little glory. Then Thialfi
went up to Thor and went to remove Hrungnir’s leg from him and
was unable to manage it. Then all the ^Esir came up when they
found out that Thor had fallen, and went to remove the leg from
him and could not move it at all. Then Magni, son of Thor and
Iarnsaxa, arrived. He was then three years old. He threw Hrung
nir’s leg off Thor and said:
‘Isn’t it a terrible shame, father, that I arrived so late. I think I
would have knocked this giant into Hel with my fist if I had come
across him.’
Then Thor stood up and welcomed his son warmly and said he
would grow up to be a powerful person.
‘And I have decided,’ he said, ‘to give you the horse Gullfaxi,
which used to be Hrungnir’s.’
Then spoke Odin and said it was wrong of Thor to give that fine
horse to the son of a giantess and not to his own father.
Thor returned home to Thrudvangar and the whetstone re
mained in his head. Then there arrived a sorceress called Groa,
wife of Aurvandil the Bold. She chanted her spells over Thor until
the whetstone began to come loose. When Thor felt this and it
seemed likely that the whetstone was going to be got out, he
wanted to repay Groa for her treatment and give her pleasure. He
[17]
79
told her these tidings that he had waded south across Elivagar
carrying Aurvandil in a basket on his back south from Giantland,
and there was this proof, that one of his toes had been sticking out
of the basket and had got frozen, so Thor broke it off and threw it
up in the sky and made out of it the star called Aurvandil’s toe.
Thor said it would not be long before Aurvandil was home, and
Groa was so pleased that she could remember none of her spells,
and the whetstone got no looser and is still stuck in Thor’s head.
And this is something that is taboo, throwing whetstones across a
room, for then the whetstone in Thor’s head stirs. Thiodolf of
Hvinir has composed a passage based on this story in Haustlong.
It says there:
Also can be seen on the circle [of the shield], O cave-fire-
[gold-]tree [man], how the terror of giants [Thor] made a
visit to the mound of Griotun. The son of lord drove to the
game of iron [battle] and the moon’s way [sky] thundered
beneath him. Wrath swelled in Meili’s brother [Thor].
All the hawks’ sanctuaries [skies] found themselves burning
because of Ull’s stepfather, and the ground all low was
battered with hail, when the goats drew the temple-power
[Thor] of the easy-chariot forward to the encounter with
Hrungnir. Svolnir’s widow [lord, earth] practically split
apart.
Baldr’s brother [Thor] did not spare there the greedy enemy
of men [Hrungnir], Mountains shook and rocks smashed;
heaven above burned. I have heard that the watcher
[Hrungnir] of the dark bone [rock] of the land [sea] of
Haki’s carriages [ships] moved violently in opposition when
he saw his warlike slayer.
Swiftly flew the pale ring-ice [shield] beneath the soles of the
rock-guarder [giant]. The bonds [gods] caused this, the
ladies of the fray [valkyries] wished it. The rock-gentleman
[giant] did not have to wait long after that for a swift blow
from the tough multitude-smashing friend [Thor] of
hammer-face-troll [Miollnir].
The life-spoiler of Beli’s bale-troops [giants] made the bear
[giant] of the noisy storms’ secret refuge [mountain fastnes
ses] fall on the shield-islet. There sank down the gully-land
Skaldskaparmal
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80
[mountain] prince [giant] before the tough hammer and the
rock-Dane-breaker [Thor] forced back the mighty defiant
one.
And the hard fragment of the whetstone of the visitor
[giant] of the woman of Vingnir’s people [the race of giants]
whizzed at ground’s [earth, lord’s] son into his brain-ridge,
so that the steel-pumice [whetstone] still stuck in Odin’s
boy’s skull, stood there spattered with Eindridi’s [Thor’s]
blood.
Until ale-Gefiun [Groa] began to enchant the red boaster of
being rust’s bale [whetstone] from the inclined slopes of the
wound-giving god’s hair. Clearly I see these deeds on
Geitir’s fence [the shield]. I received the border’s moving
cliff [shield] decorated with horrors from Thorleif.
Then Aigir said: ‘Hrungnir seems to me to have been very
mighty. Did Thor achieve any greater exploit in his dealings with
trolls?’
Then Bragi replied: ‘The story of how Thor went to Geirrod’s
courts is worth detailed treatment. On that occasion he did not
have the hammer Miollnir or the girdle of might or the iron
gauntlets, and that was Loki’s doing. He went with him, for it had
befallen Loki, having gone flying once for fun with Frigg’s falcon
form, that out of curiosity he had flown into Geirrod’s courts and
saw there a great hall, and he alighted and looked in through the
window. But Geirrod looked out at him and ordered that the bird
should be caught and brought to him. The person sent got with
difficulty up on to the wall of the hall, it was so high; Loki was
pleased that it caused him trouble to get at him, and planned to
delay flying up until the man had performed the whole of the
difficult climb. But when the fellow came at him, he beat his wings
and jumped hard upwards, and found his feet were stuck. Loki
was captured there and brought to giant Geirrod. And when he
saw his eyes, he had a feeling it must be a person and demanded
that he answer him, but Loki remained silent. Then Geirrod
locked Loki in a chest and starved him there for three months.
And when Geirrod took him out and demanded that he speak,
Loki said who he was, and to redeem his life he swore Geirrod
oaths that he would get Thor to come to Geirrod’s courts without
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