THE COMPARATIVe VǪLUSPÁ

 

Stanzas 34-36

 

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 34:
N/A

 
 

x. Neckel’s Old Norse edition, 1914:

Neckel’s 1914 edition lacks a stanza numbered 34.

 
 
 

STANZA 35:
Hapt sá hon

 
 

x. Neckel’s Old Norse edition, 1914:

Hapt sá hon liggia und hvera lundi,
lægiarnlíki Loka áþekkian;
þar sitr Sigyn, þeygi um sínom
ver vel glýioð – vitoð ér enn, eða hvat?

 
 
 

f. Hollander, 1928:

A captive lies in the kettle-grove,
like to lawless Loki in shape;
there sits Sigyn, full sad in mind,
by her fettered mate: know ye further, or how?

e. Bellows, 1923:

One did I see In the wet woods bound,
A lover of ill, and to Loki like;
By his side does Sigyn sit, nor is glad
To see her mate: would you know yet more?

d. Bray, 1908:

I saw lying bound in Cauldron-grove
one like the form of guile-loving Loki.
And there sat Sigyn, yet o’er her husband
rejoicing little. —Would ye know further, and what?

c. Guðbrandur Vigfússon & York Powell, 1883:

I behold a captive lying under Cauldron-holt,
the bodily semblance of Loki the guileful.
There Sigyn sits, sad of heart, over her husband.
—Know ye yet or what?

b. Thorpe, 1866:

Bound she saw lying, under Hveralund,
a monstrous form, to Loki like.
There sits Sigyn, for her consort's sake,
not right glad. Understand ye yet, or what?

a. Turner, 1836:

She saw the bound one
Lying under the grove of the Huns.
The perfidious funeral.
One like Lok,
There sat as Sigynia.
Never dear to her husband.
Know you more? Or what is it?

 
 
 

STANZA 36:
Á fellr austan

 
 

x. Neckel’s Old Norse edition, 1914:

Á fellr austan um eitrdala,
sǫxom ok sverðom: Slíðr heitir sú.

 
 
 

f. Hollander, 1928:

There flows from the east, through fester dales,
a stream hight Slíth filled with swords and knives.

e. Bellows, 1923:

From the east there pours through poisoned vales
With swords and daggers the river Slith.
***
***

d. Bray, 1908:

From the eastward a flood, the Stream of Fear,
bore swords and daggers through Poison-dales.

c. Guðbrandur Vigfússon & York Powell, 1883:

A river, called Slide, whose waters are knives and swords,
flows through Venom Dales

b. Thorpe, 1866:

From the east a river falls,
through venom dales,
with mire and clods,
Slid is its name.

a. Turner, 1836:

A river flows from the east
Over poisoned vales,
Carrying mud and turf.
It is called Slider.