THE COMPARATIVe VǪLUSPÁ
Stanzas 31-33
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 31:
Ek sá Baldri
x. Neckel’s Old Norse edition, 1914:
Ek sá Baldri, blóðgom tívur,
Óðins barni, ørlǫg fólgin:
stóð um vaxinn, vǫllom hæri,
miór ok miǫk fagr, mistilteinn.
I saw for Baldr, the blessed god,
Ygg's dearest son, what doom is hidden:
green and glossy, there grew aloft,
the trees among, the mistletoe.
I saw for Baldr, the bleeding god,
The son of Othin, his destiny set:
Famous and fair in the lofty fields,
Full grown in strength the mistletoe stood.
I saw for Baldr, the bleeding god,
the child of Odin, his doom concealed.
High o’er the fields, there stood upgrown,
most slender and fair, the mistletoe.
c. Guðbrandur Vigfússon & York Powell, 1883:
I behold Fate looming over Balder,
Woden’s son, the bloody victim.
There stands the Mistletoe slender and delicate,
blooming high above the ground.
I saw of Baldr, the blood-stained god.
Odin’s son, the hidden fate.
There stood grown up, high on the plain,
slender and passing fair, the mistletoe.
a. Turner, 1836:
I saw
The secret destinies of Balder.
The bleeding warrior: the son of Odin.
The slender and polished weapon
That killed him
Stood in the field growing upwards.
STANZA 32:
Varð ad þeim
x. Neckel’s Old Norse edition, 1914:
Varð ad þeim meiði, er mér sýndiz,
harmflaug hættlig: Hǫðr nam skióta.
Baldrs bróðir var of borinn snemma,
sá nam, Óðins sonr, einnættr vega.
The slender-seeming sapling became
a fell weapon when flung by Hoth;
but Baldr's brother was born full soon:
but one night old slew him Óthin's son.
From the branch which seemed so slender and fair
Came a harmful shaft that Hoth should hurl;
But the brother of Baldr was born ere long,
And one night old fought Othin's son
d. Bray, 1908:
And there came from that plant, though slender it seemed,
the fell woe-shaft which Hod did shoot.
But Baldr’s brother was born ere long;
that son of Odin fought one night old;
c. Guðbrandur Vigfússon & York Powell, 1883:
Out of this shoot, so slender to look on,
there shall grow a harmful fateful shaft.
Hod shall shoot it,
From that shrub was made, as to me it seemed,
a deadly, noxious dart. Hödr shot it forth;
It was made from that tree
Which appeared to me
A mournful calamity
When Hodur darted it:
The killer of Balder, born before today.
Before one night the new born
Struck the son of Odin.
STANZA 33:
Ðó hann æva
x. Neckel’s Old Norse edition, 1914:
Ðó hann æva hendr né hǫfuð kembði,
áðr á bál um bar Baldrs andskota;
en Frigg um grét í Fensǫlom
vá Valhallar — vitoð ér enn, eða hvat?
Neither cleansed his hands nor combed his hair
till Baldr's slayer he sent to Hel;
but Frigg did weep in Fensalir
the fateful deed: know ye further, or how?
His hands he washed not, his hair he combed not,
Till he bore to the bale-blaze Baldr's foe.
But in Fensalir did Frigg weep sore
For Valhall's need: would you know yet more?
d. Bray, 1908:
for never hand he bathed, nor head,
ere he laid on the bale-fire Baldr’s foe.
But Frigg long wept o’er the woe of Valholl
in Fen’s moist halls —Would ye know further, and what?
c. Guðbrandur Vigfússon & York Powell, 1883:
but Frigga in Fen-hall shall weep over the woe of Wal-hall.—Know ye yet or what?
But Frigg bewailed, in Fensalir,
Valhall’s calamity. Understand ye yet, or what?
Then he would not raise his hands
Nor comb his head
Before he should carry
The foe of Balder to the pile.
Frigga grieved in her Fensola,
The keeper of Valhalla.
Know you more? Is it this?