THE COMPARATIVe VǪLUSPÁ
Stanzas 58-60
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 58:
Geyr nú Garmr
x. Neckel’s Old Norse edition, 1914:
Geyr nú Garmr miǫk fyr Gnipahelli:
festr mun slitna, en freki renna.
Fiǫlð veit hon frœða, fram sé ek lengra
um ragna rǫk, rǫmm, sigtíva.
Garm bays loudly before Gnipa cave,
tears him free Fenrir and fares to battle.
The fates I fathom, yet farther I see:
of the mighty gods the engulfing doom.
?
Loud bays Garm before Gaping-hel,
the bond shall be broken, the Wolf run free;
hidden things I know; still onward I see
the great Doom of the Powers, the gods of war.
c. Guðbrandur Vigfússon & York Powell, 1883:
Fiercely bays Garm, etc.
?
a. Turner, 1836:
Garmur barks before the cave of Gnipa;
The chains are broken:
STANZA 59:
Sér hon up
x. Neckel’s Old Norse edition, 1914:
Sér hon up koma ǫðro sinni
iǫrð ór ægi, iðiagrœna:
falla forsar, flýgr ǫrn yfir,
sá er á fialli fiska veiðir
Again see I, bright green afresh,
the earth arise from out of the sea;
fell-torrents flow, overflies them the eagle.
on hoar highlands hunting for fish.
Now do I see the earth anew
Rise all green from the waves again;
The cataracts fall, and the eagle flies.
And fish he catches beneath the cliffs.
d. Bray, 1908:
I see uprising a second time
earth from the ocean, green anew;
the waters fall, on high the eagle
flies o’er the fell and catches fish.
c. Guðbrandur Vigfússon & York Powell, 1883:
I behold Earth rise again with its evergreen forests
out of the deep; the waters fall in rapids;
above hovers the eagle, that fisher of the falls.
She sees arise, a second time,
earth from ocean, beauteously green,
waterfalls descending; the eagle flying over,
which in the fell captures fish.
She sees at last emerge from the ocean,
An earth in every part flourishing.
The cataracts flow down;
The eagle flies aloft;
And hunt the fishes in the mountains.
STANZA 60:
Finnaz æsir á
x. Neckel’s Old Norse edition, 1914:
Finnaz æsir á Iðavelli
ok um moldþinur, mátkan, dœma
ok minnaz þar á megindóma
ok á Fimbultýs fornar rúnar.
Again the æsir on Otha-field meet,
and speak of the mighty Mithgarth-worm,—
go over again the great world-doom,
and Fimbultýr's unfathomed runes.
The gods in Ithavoll meet together.
Of the terrible girdler of earth they talk,
And the mighty past they call to mind,
And the ancient runes of the Ruler of Gods.
d. Bray, 1908:
The gods are gathered on the Fields of Labour;
they speak concerning the great World Serpent,
and remember there things of former fame
and the Mightiest God’s old mysteries.
c. Guðbrandur Vigfússon & York Powell, 1883:
The Anses meet on Ida-plain,
they talk of the mighty Earth-serpent,
and remember the great decrees,
and the ancient mysteries of Fimbul-ty [the unknown God].
The Æsir meet on Ida’s plain,
and of the mighty earth-encircler speak,
and there to memory call their mighty deeds,
and the supreme god’s ancient lore.
The Asæ met in Ida Valle,
And talked of the world's great calamities:
And of the ancient runæ of Fimbultyr.