THE COMPARATIVe VǪLUSPÁ
Stanzas 1-3
Joseph S. Hopkins for Mimisbrunnr.info, August 2022
The present page consists of an entry of Mimisbrunnr.info’s The Comparative Vǫluspá. The Mimisbrunnr.info team designed The Comparative Vǫluspá as a resource to assist in the study of both the poem and its English language translations. You can read about the project’s approach and goals here.
The Comparative Vǫluspá features six public domain English editions of Vǫluspá presented in reverse chronological order, specifically those of Lee M. Hollander (first edition, 1928), Henry Adams Bellows (1923), Olive Bray (1908), Guðbrandur Vigfússon and York Powell (1883), Benjamin Thorpe (1866), and Sharon Turner (1836). We precede these with Gustav Neckel’s 1914 Old Norse edition of the poem, which is also in the public domain in the United States, and which we’ve used as a basis for the project’s stanza order.
Please note that if this is your first encounter with the poem, The Comparative Vǫluspá can serve as an introduction, but you stand to benefit from Carolyne Larrington’s revised edition (2014) as your foundation. Not only do Larrington’s notes reflect contemporary scholarship but her revised edition contains two separate translations of the poem from two notably different manuscripts of the poem. Translators often combine these manuscripts and this can lead to significant confusion for non-specialists.
STANZA 1:
Hlióðs bið ek
x. Neckel’s Old Norse edition, 1914:
Hlióðs bið ek allar helgar kindir,
meiri ok minni, mǫgo Heimdallar!
Vildo, at ek, Valfǫðr, vel fyrtelia
forn spiǫll fira, þau er fremst um man.
Hear me, all ye hallowed beings
both high and low of Heimdall's children:
thou wilt, Valfather, that I well set forth
the foremost fates which befall the world.
Hearing I ask from the holy races,
From Heimdall's sons, both high and low;
Thou wilt, Valfather, that well I relate
Old tales I remember of men long ago.
Hearing I ask all holy kindreds,
high and low-born, sons of Heimdal!
Thou too, Odin, who bidst me utter
the oldest tidings of men that I mind!
c. Guðbrandur Vigfússon & York Powell, 1883:
For hearing I pray all Holy Beings [Gods],
and the sons of Heimdall high and low [all men].
Thou O Wal-Father [Woden] wouldst have me set forth
in order the histories of men as far back as I remember.
For silence I pray all sacred children,
great and small, sons of Heimdall.
they will that I Valfather's deeds recount,
men's ancient saws, those that I best remember.
a. Turner, 1836:
BE silent, I pray, all holy creatures!
Greater or small! Sons of Heimdallar!
I will tell the devices of Valfodur;
The ancient discourses of men: the earliest I know.
STANZA 2:
Ek man iǫtna
x. Neckel’s Old Norse edition, 1914:
Ek man iǫtna, ár um borna,
þá er forðom mik fœdda hǫfðo;
nío man ek heima, nío íviði,
miǫtvið mæran fyr mold neðan.
I call to mind the kin of etins
which in times long gone did give me life.
Nine worlds I know, the nine abodes
of the wondrous world-tree, the welkin beneath.
I remember yet the giants of yore,
Who gave me bread in the days gone by;
Nine worlds I knew, the nine in the tree
With mighty roots beneath the mold.
d. Bray, 1908:
I remember of yore were born the Jötuns,
they who aforetime fostered me:
nine worlds I remember, nine in the Tree,
the glorious Fate Tree that springs ‘neath the Earth.
c. Guðbrandur Vigfússon & York Powell, 1883:
I remember the Giants born of yore,
who bred me up long ago.
I remember nine Worlds, nine Sibyls,
a glorious Judge beneath the earth.
The Jötuns I remember early born,
those who me of old have reared.
I nine worlds remember, nine trees,
the great central tree, beneath the earth.
I know the giants; the early born;
They who formerly instructed me.
I know there are nine worlds, and nine supports,
and the great centre under the earth.
STANZA 3:
ár var alda
x. Neckel’s Old Norse edition, 1914:
Ár var alda, þat er Ymir byggði:
vara sandr né sær né svalar unnir,
iǫrð fannz æva né upphiminn,
gap var ginnunga, en gras hvergi.
In earliest times did Ymir live:
was nor sea nor sand nor salty waves,
neither earth was there nor upper heaven,
but a gaping nothing, and green things nowhere.
Of old was the age when Ymir lived;
Sea nor cool waves nor sand there were ;
Earth had not been, nor heaven above,
But a yawning gap, and grass nowhere.
d. Bray, 1908:
‘Twas the earliest of times when Ymir lived;
then was sand nor sea nor cooling wave,
nor was Earth found ever, nor Heaven on high,
there was Yawning of Deeps and nowhere grass:
c. Guðbrandur Vigfússon & York Powell, 1883:
In the beginning, when naught was,
there was neither sand nor sea nor cool waves,
nor was earth to be seen nor heaven above.
There was a Yawning Chasm [chaos]
There was in times of old, where Ymir dwelt,
nor sand nor sea, nor gelid waves;
earth existed not, nor heaven above,
'twas a chaotic chasm, and grass nowhere,
In the era of the ages where Ymer was dwelling,
There was no sand nor sea,
Nor winds on a vast ocean.
Earth yet was made not; nor the heaven above.
Only the abyss of chaos; and no grass.