“the Voluspa”:
Sharon Turner's 1836 Translation
of the Old Norse poem Vǫluspá

Joseph S. Hopkins for Mimisbrunnr.info, October 2021. Updated March 2022.

English historian and translator Sharon Turner (d. 1847) produced the first known English translation of the now famous Old Norse poem Vǫluspá in the first half of the 19th century (on this, see Turner's introduction to the poem, p. 240). While long superseded by more accurate translations of the poem (for examples, see Eddic to English), Turner’s edition remains of interest to researchers surveying the history of translations of the poem. In fact, the present transcription is a byproduct of an in-development comparison of English language translations of the poem. We’ve also added stanza numbers to better facilitate analysis.

Turner does not appear to provide information about the edition he consulted for his translation. However, rather than translating directly from an Old Norse edition, we suspect Turner translates from a Latin translation of an Old Norse edition of the poem (consider forms used by Turner such as “Jornumgandus”). Other oddities in this translation include misunderstanding the (male) god Víðarr as a female entity (“vida”, stanza 42), mistaking Freyja as ('Óðr's girl') as Óðr (“the virgin Odi”, stanza 24), and multiple spellings of an entity in a single stanza (cf. Mimur and Mimer in stanza 35.

Sharon's translation of Vǫluspá does not appear in all editions of his "History of the Anglo-Saxons". However, the translation is present by the time of the publication of the book's sixth edition, which I've used as my source for the present transcription.

Edition

The below transcription specifically draws from the following edition:

Turner, Sharon. 1836. The History of the Anglo-Saxons from the Earliest Period to the Norman Conquest. Vol. 1. Sixth edition, p. 240-249. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman. Public domain: Viewable online at archive.org.

To better facilitate analysis, we have added numbers to Turner’s stanzas.

TRANSCRIPTION

p. 240

The Voluspa.

THIS Poem is frequently quoted in the Edda of Snorre, as a competent authority, and is therefore much more ancient. It is thought to have been compiled from preceding traditions by Sæmund, who lived about a hundred years before Snorre. As it has never appeared in English before, and is very little known in Europe, and is the most ancient record of the traditions of the Northmen which has yet been found, a translation of it will be added here. It is obscure and difficult, and the meaning is not always indisputable. I have made the version as literally as possible, and as well as I can understand it, but in some parts all the interpretations of it differ. Bartholin has sometimes rather paraphrased than translated his extracts. Its best commentary is Snorre's Edda. The name Voluspa implies the oracle or prophecy of Vola. This Sibyl of the North expresses in it, though with rapid conciseness, the great outlines of the most ancient Northern Mythology. The Voluspa and the Edda are two great repositories of the oldest and most venerated traditions of Pagan Scandinavia. The Voluspa opens abruptly, and most probably, represents many of the ancient Saxon traditions or imaginations.

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.

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.

p. 241

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.

Before Bur had raised up the meadows,
And had enlarged Midgard,
The sun shone round the south,
And the ground produced its green fruits.

The sun was his noon, threw out the moon
With his rang hand, over the steeds of heaven.
The sun knew not where should be his palaces:
The moon knew not where should be her home:
The stars knew not where would be their station.

Then all the Deities moved to their royal stools:
The stupendously-holy Gods consider these things:
They gave names to the night and to the twilight,
They called the morning and mid-day so;
And bade the rise and the course of the year to begin.

The Asæ met on the fields of Ida,
And framed their images and temples.
They placed the furnaces. They created money.
They made tongs and iron tools.

They played at dice. They were merry.
No vicious desire of gold arose among them.
Till three of the Thursa Virgins come,
Two very powerful from Jotun-heim.

The Gods then went to their divine stools,
Inquiring of the Holy Deities, this,—
Who ought to be the Lord of the Duerga, (the dwarfs,)
Or to create them
From Bruner's blood, and the legs of Blavis?

10.

There Motsogner obtained the pre-eminence
Of all the Duerga. Durin, the next.
They made many images of men,
Dwarfs on the earth, as During said.

11.

Nor and Nidi; the northern; the southern;
The east; the west; the hidden Althiofi,
Bivor and Bavor; Bumber; Nori,
An, and Anar; Ae; the mead of knowledge.

p. 242

12.

Veigur and Gandalfur; Vindalfur; Thraim;
Theckur; Thorinn; Thror; Litur and Vitur;
Nar and Nyradur. Now I have the dwarfs,
The violent and the placid, rightly enumerated.

13.

Fili; Kili; Fundinn; Nali;
Heiti; Vili; Hanar; Svior;
Frar; Hornbore; Flogur; Lone;
Aurvangar, and Eikenskialldi.

14.

It is time that the dwarfs
From the family of Daulin
Should be reckoned by the kindreds of people,
For an auspicious year;
They go out from the rocks above ground,
To the seats of the husbandmen;
The sea of the ploughs.

15.

There was Draupner and Dolgkrasir:
Hair; Haugspere; Hlevangur; Gloe;
Skryver; Virvir; Skafidur; Ai;
Alfur; Ingve of Eikinskialldr;
Falur; Frosti; Fidur; Sinnar;
Dore; Ore; Dufar; Andvere;
Heph; Fili; Haar; Siviar;
This will be manifest while people live;
The number of their descendants will value it.

15.

Until three came from the troop,
The powerful and rich Asæ, to their home,
They found in the land weak and unwarlike ones,
ASK AND EMBLA, without a destiny.

16.

These had then no soul; they had no reason;
No blood; no sense; no good colour.
Odin gave them a soul. Hænir gave reason;
Lodur gave them blood and a good complexion.

17.

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.*

18.

Then came the much-knowing virgins;
Three, from the sea

p. 243

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.

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.
They called her Heid,
Whatever house they came to.

Vola of good omen
Dishonoured the divine mysteries.
She knew the magic arts.
She could use enchantments,
Always troubling like an evil woman.

Then the Deities
Went each to their judicial stools.
Considering whether mischiefs from bad counsel
Would occur from the Asæ;
Or whether all the Gods
Should reserve their banquets to themselves.

Odin hastened,
And sent his darts into the crowd.
This was the first slaughter of men in the world.
The wall of the city of Asæ was broken.
Vaner made the fields to be trampled by war.

Then all the gods went to their judicial stools:
The Holy Deities: to consider
Who would mingle the æther and the sea;
Or give the Virgin Odi
To the race of the Jotna (the giants).

p. 244

Thor was one there; turgid with bile:
He rarely sat,
When he perceived such things.
Oath and compacts were cut thro',
And all the controversies which intervened.

She knew;
Heimdallur had the secret song;
Under the same sacred zone
She beheld the river
Flowing with its dark torrent.
From the compact of Valfodur.
Know you more? It is this.

She sat alone in the air,
When the old man came,
Yggiongur of the Asæ,
And looked her in the face.
"What do you seek from me?"
"Why do you tempt me?"
I know all. Odin!

Where have you hidden the eye?
In the greater fountain of Mimur.
Mimur every morning drinks mead from the pledge of Valfodur.
Know you more? What is it?

Herfodur delivered to him
The rings and the bracelets.
The spell of riches; wisdom;
And the staffs of prophecy.
He saw these well and widely
Over all the earth.
Know you more? What is it?

He saw the Valkyriar
Immediately coming?
Adorned on steeds, they went to Gothiod.
Skulld held the shield:
Scogul was the other.
Ginnur; Helldur;
Gondull and Gierskialld.
Now the maidens of Odin are told:
The Valkyrear: instructed to ride over the ground.

p. 245

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.

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.

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?

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?

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

There stands towards the north,
In Nidafiollum,
A golden palace called Sandra;
But another exists in Okolni.
The ale cellars of the Jotun
Which is called Brimir.

She saw a palace stand far from the sun
In Nastrondum.
It looks at the doors of the north.

p. 246

The building is twisted from the spines of serpents:
Poisoned torrents
Flow thro' its windows.

There she saw amid the dreadful streams
The perjured and the murderers:
And those who pulled the ears
Of another's wife.
Their Nidhoggur
Tore the flesh from their corpses.
The fierce Wolf devoured the men.
Know you more? It is this.

There sat an old man
Towards the east in a wood of iron.
Where he nourished the sons of Fenris.
Eery one of these grew prodigious;
A giant form;
The prosecutor of the moon.

He was saturated
With the lives of dying men.
He sprinkled the host of the Deities with blood.
He darken'd the light of the sun in the summer.
All the winds were malignant.
Know you more? It is this.

He sat on a mound, and struck the harp.
Gygas the herdsman.
The glad Egder (the eagle)
Sang before him on the boughs of the tree,
The purple cock surnamed Fialer.

The golden-haired bird
sang with the Asæ.
He roused the heroes with Herfadur.
But another crowed below the earth,
The yellow cock in the palace of Hela.

Garmur barked horribly
Before the cave of Gnipa.
The chains will be broken:
Freco wish rush out,
Wise she knows many things.
But I see beyond,
From the twilight of the Deities,
The fierce Sigtiva.

p. 247

Brethren will fight and slay each other;
Kindred will spurn their consanguinity;
Hard will be the world:
Many the adulteries.
A bearded age: an age of swords:
Shields will be cloven.
An age of winds; an age of wolves.
Till the world shall perish
There will not be one that will spare another.

The sons of Mimur will sport;
But the bosom of the earth will burn;
Hear the sound of the Mystic horn,
Heimdallur will blow on high
The elevated horn.
Odin will speak by the head of Mimer.

The ancient tree will sound ominously.
The Jotun will be dissolved.
The ash Yggdrasil erected
Will become terrible.
Garmur will bark
Before Gniper's cave.
The chains will be shattered:
And Freco will run forth.

Hrymer will drive his car from the east.
Jornumgandus will revolve round
With the rage of the Jotuns (giants),
The serpent will move the seas;
But the eagle flies
Through the seas of people:
And Lok will hold his club.

All the sons of Fiflo lead Freco.
The brother of Bilvifs accompanies them.

What is there among the Asæ?
What among the Elfi?
All the house of the Jotun trembles:
The Dvergi (the dwarfs) groan
Before the doors of the rocks:
Their stony asylum.
Know you more? What is it?

p. 248

Surtur comes from the south
With Swiga — lesi
The sword of Valtivi radiates like the sun:
The stony rocks glide away:
The Deities are enraged
Men tread the way of Hela:
But the heaven is cleft in twain.

Then Hlinar, the other grief, goes forth.
When odin goes to battle the Wolf.
The striker of Beli shining
Opposes Surtur.
Then the husband of Frigga falls.

Then will come Sigfodr
The greater son of Odin:
Vida; to fight with the fatal animal,
Who with her broad hand,
In the middle of her jaws,
Pierces his heart with a sword.
Thus avenging the death of her father.

Then comes
The beautiful son of Hlodynia.
The son of Odin combated the Wolf.
He slew in wrath the serpent Midgard.
Men state the prop of the world.

The offspring of Fiorgunar
Stepped nine steps.
Weakened by the black and hungry snake,
The sun darkens;
The earth is immerged in the sea;
The serene stars are withdrawn from the heaven:
Fire rages in the ancient world:
The lofty colour reaches to heaven itself.

Garmur barks before the cave of Gnipa;
The chains are broken:
Freco rushes out.

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.

p. 249

The Asæ met in Ida Valle,
And talked of the world's great calamities:
And of the ancient runæ of Fimbultyr.

These things done, the wonderful dice
Are found in gilt in the grass,
Which those of the former days possessed.

There were fields without sowing;
All adverse things became prosperous.
Baldur will come again.

Haudur and Baldur:
Hroptr and Sigroptr:
The Asæ will dwell without evils.
Do you yet understand?

Then Heinir shares the power of choosing Vidar,
And the sons of the two brothers
Inhabit the vast mansion of the winds.
Do you know more?

A hall stands brighter than the sun;
Covered with the gold of Gimle.
There virtuous people will dwell:
And for ages will enjoy every good.

There will come the obscene dragon flying,
The serpent from Nidar-fiolli.
He carries the corpses in his wings:
He flies over the ground:
The infernal serpent, Nidhoggur:
Now the earth gapes for him.

Edition notes

Stanza 17: These words mean "The Fountain of Necessity."
Stanza 18: The Edda calls these "the Past, the Present, and the Future."

Return to "The Comparative Vǫluspá”

“the Voluspa”:Sharon Turner's 1836 Translationof the Old Norse poem Vǫluspá