THE COMPARATIVe VǪLUSPÁ
Stanzas 19-21
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 19:
ASK VEIT EK
x. Neckel’s Old Norse edition, 1914:
Ask veit ek standa, heitir Yggdrasill,
hár baðmr, ausinn hvíta auri;
þaðan koma dǫggvar, þærs í dala falla;
stendr æ yfir, grœnn, Urðar brunni.
An ash I know, hight Yggdrasil,
the mighty tree moist with white dews;
thence came the floods that fall a-down;
evergreen stands at Urth's well this tree.
An ash I know, Yggdrasil its name,
With water white is the great tree wet;
Thence come the dews that fall in the dales,
Green by Urth's well does it ever grow.
An ash I know standing, ‘tis called Yggdrasil,
a high tree sprinkled with shining drops;
come dews therefrom which fall in the dales;
it stands ever green o’er the well of Weird,
c. Guðbrandur Vigfússon & York Powell, 1883:
I know an Ash, a high-towering Holy Tree, called Yggdrasil [Woden’s steed, gallows],
besprinkled with white loam;
whence come the dews that fall in the dales.
It spreads ever green over the Weird’s burn;
I know an ash standing Yggdrasil hight,
a lofty tree, laved with limpid water:
thence come the dews into the dales that fall;
ever stands it green over Urd's fountain.
a. Turner, 1836:
I know that an ash existed call Ygdrasil:
Its lofty size covered with white clay.
Then comes the rain that falls in the valleys;
It stands always green over Ordar-brunne.
STANZA 20:
Þaðan koma meyiar
x. Neckel’s Old Norse edition, 1914:
Þaðan koma meyiar, margs vitandi,
þriár, ór þeim sal, er und þolli stendr;
Urð héto eina, aðra Verðandi,
—skaro á skíði— Skuld ina þriðio;
þær lǫg lǫgðo, þær líf kuro
alda bǫrnum, ørlǫg seggia.
Thence wise maidens three betake them—
under spreading boughs their bower stands—;
[Urth one is hight, the other Verthandi,
Skuld the third: they scores did cut.]
they laws did make, they lives did choose;
for the children of men they marked the fates.
Thence come the maidens mighty in wisdom,
Three from the dwelling down 'neath the tree;
Urth is one named, Verthandi the next, —
On the wood they scored, — and Skuld the third.
Laws they made there, and life allotted
To the sons of men, and set their fates.
d. Bray, 1908:
There are the Maidens, all things knowing,
three in the hall which stands ‘neath the Tree.
One is named ‘Weird,’ the second ‘Being’—
who grave on tablets—but ‘Shall’ the third.
They lay down laws, they choose out life,
they speak the doom of the sons of men.
c. Guðbrandur Vigfússon & York Powell, 1883:
whence come the Three Virgins of manifold wisdom,
from the Well beneath the tree.
They have laid down the fate,
and chosen the life
and spoken the destinies of the children of men.
Thence come maidens, much knowing,
three from the hall, which under that tree stands;
Urd hight the one, the second Verdandi, —
on a tablet they graved —
Skuld the third. Laws they established,
life allotted to the sons of men; destinies pronounced.
Then came the much-knowing virgins;
Three, from the sea
Which extend over the oak
One is called Urd (necessity);
Another Vedande (the possible);
The third Skulld.
They engrave on the shield;
They appoint laws, they choose laws
For the sons of the ages;
The fates of mankind.
STANZA 21:
Þat man hon
x. Neckel’s Old Norse edition, 1914:
Þat man hon fólkvíg fyrst í heimi,
er Gullveigo geirom studdo,
ok í hǫll Hárs hána brendo,
þrysvar brendo, þrysvar borna,
opt, ósialdan; þó hon enn lifir.
I ween the first war in the world was this,
when the gods Gullveig gashed with their spears,
and in the hall of Hór burned her—
there times burned they the thrice re-born,
ever and anon: even now she liveth.
The war I remember, the first in the world,
When the gods with spears had smitten Gollveig,
And in the hall of Hor had burned her, —
Three times burned, and three times born,
Oft and again, yet ever she lives.
d. Bray, 1908:
I remember the first great war in the world,
when Golden-draught they pierced with spears,
and burned in the hall of Odin the High One;
thrice they burned her, the three times born,—
oft, not seldom— yet still she lives.
c. Guðbrandur Vigfússon & York Powell, 1883:
The first war in the world that I [the Sibyl] remember
was when they speared Gold-weigh [Gold-draught],
and burnt her in the High One’s Hall;
thrice was she burnt, and thrice reborn,
though she still lives.
She that war remembers the first on earth,
when Gullveig they with lances pierced,
and in the high one's hall her burnt,
thrice burnt, thrice brought her forth,
oft not seldom; yet she still lives.
This one knew the first slaughter
Of the people in the world;
When they supported Gullveig with weapons;
And burn her in the hall of Har.
Three times they burnt her;
Three times re-born:
Often—again—yet she lived.