Page:The Monthly Magazine or British Register Volume 6 (1798).pdf/475

Odin. Gangrath^[1], monarch, is my name.
Needing hospitality,
To thy palace-gate I come;
Long and rugged is the way
Which my weary feet have trodden.

Vaf. Gangrath, on the stool beneath
Let thy loitering limbs repose:
Then begin our strife of speech.

Odin. When a son of meanness comes
To the presence of the great,
Let him speak the needful word;.
But forbear each idle phrase,
If he seek a listening ear.

Vaf. Since upon thy lowly seat,
Still thou court the learned strife—
Tell me, how is nam'd the steed,
On whose back^[2] the morning comes?

Odin. Skin-faxi^[3] is the skiey steed
Who bears aloft the smiling day
To all the regions of mankind:
His the ever-shining mane.

Vaf. Since upon thy lowly seat,
Still thou court the learned strife—
Tell me, how is sam'd the steed
From the east who bears the night.
Fraught with showering joys of love?^[4]

Odin. Hrimfax is the fable steed,
From the east who brings the night
Fraught with showering joys of love:
As he champs the foamy bit,
Drops of dew are scatter'd round,
To adorn the vales of earth.

Vaf. Since upon thy lowly seat,
Still thou court the learned strife—
Tell me, how is nam'd the flood,
From the dwellings of the Jutes
That divides the haunt of Goths?

Odin. Ifing’s^[5] deep and murky wave,
Parts the ancient sons of earth
From the dwellings of the Goths,
Open flows the mighty flood,
Nor fhall ice arrest its course
While the wheel of ages rolls.

Vaf. Since, &c.
Tell me how is nam'd the field
Where the Goths shall strive in vain,
With the flame-clad Surtur’s^[6] might

Odin. Vigrith^[7] is the fatal field
Where the Goths to Surtur bend.
He who rides a hundred leagues
Has not crost the ample plain.

Vaft. Gangrath, truly thou art wise;
Mount the footstep of my throne,
And on equal cushion plac’d
Thence renew the strife of tongues,
Big with danger, big with death.

 

PART II.^[8]

Odin. First, if thou can tell, declare
Whence the earth and whence the sky?

Vaft. Ymer’s^[9] flesh produc’d the earth;
Ymer’s bone, it's rocky ribs;
Ymer’s skull, the skiey vault;
Ymer’s teeth, the mountain-ice;
Ymer’s sweat, the ocean-salt

Odin. Next, if thou can tell, declare
Who was parent to the moon
That shines upon the sleep of man?
And who is parent to the sun?

Vaft. Know that Mundilfær^[10] is hight
Father to the moon and sun:
Age on age shall roll away
While they mark the months and years.

Odin. If so far thy wisdom reach,
Tell me whence arose the day,
That smiles upon the toil of man?
And who is parent to the night?

Vaft. Delling^[11] is the fire of day,
But from Naurvi sprang the night,
Fraught with showering joys of love,
Who bids the moon to wax and wane,
Marking months and years to man.

Odin. If so far thy wisdom reach,
Tell me whence the winter comes?
Whence the soothing summer's birth
Showers of fruitage who bestows?

Vaft. Vindsual is the name of him
Who begot the winter's god;
Summer from Suafuthur sprang:

1. Gangrath means seek-advice. If this was the travelling name of Odin, it would easily assume in Greek the form Anacharsis.
2. In the Grecian mythology, the gods of day are charioteers; but in the Gothic, notwithstanding Goranson, they seem to have been cavaliers.
3. Skin-faxi means shiny-locks; but to this horse is never ascribed the supremacy among horses. On the contrary, the saga quoted in Percy's edition of “Mallet's Northern Antiquities,” vol. ii. page 109, expressly says: “The ash Ydrafil is the first of trees; Sleipner, of horses; Bifrost, of bridges,” &c.
4. The line Nott oc nyt reginn, literally night eke bliss showers, is misrendered by the Danish interpreter. It is only capable of the sense here given, as will appear by consulting the word Nyt in the vocabulary of the Edda Sæmundar.
5. The river Ifing was in Polish Prussia.
6. The last day of the week was consecrated to Surtur, and named from him.
7. Vigrith seemingly means drunkenness and Surtur the funeral flame: The allegory in this case intimates that a loss of the faculties is the harbinger of death. Gräter however translates it by noise of battle, burly-burly; and is perhaps in the right. It might however be sought in real geography.
8. The former half of this Saga exhibits symptoms of a higher antiquity, more allusions to local nature, and a mythology less, evolved.
9. Ymer answers to chaos: it means ever,or eternity.
10. Mundilfær means gift-bestowing. The allegory therefore describes Beneficence as producing the sun and moon.
11. Delling, twilight; Naurvi, north; Vindsual, wind-swell; Suafuthur, much-soothing; Bergelmer, old man of the mountain; Thrugelmer, old man of the deep: Aurgelmer, original old man.