Icelandic Poetry/Song of the Traveller

For other English-language translations of this work, see Baldrs draumar.

THE

SONG of the TRAVELLER, &c.

I.
The morn was up—the blast blew loud—
When now, their halls, the Asi croud:
Afiniæ^[1] too the council seek,
Ever privileged to speak.
Death of Balder^[2] was the theme—
His thought by day, by night his dream.

II.
A phantom, pale and bleeding rose,
Ever as he sought repose:
Ghastly visions round him prest,
And fear'd his midnight hours of rest.
The Giants croud each sacred fane,
Where Goddesses presageful reign,
To know the impending evil near,
Threat’ned by the nightly fear.

III.
The sacred oracles^[3] declare—
Balder must for death prepare!
Asi sad the tidings hear;
Frigga drops the impassion’d tear.
Dignify’d in silent grief,
Odin seeks not such relief:
But deeply ponders in his mind,
Safety for his son to find.

IV.
Let us, he cry’d, forbid to fly
The stormy powers that rule the sky;
League with the light’nings; thunders chain;
And quell the uprising, angry main:
Left, mission’d by the powers of fate,
They in direful ambush wait.
For Balder, Odin, thus afraid,
Peace with willing nature made;
And every jarring element,
For once harmoniously consent.

V.
Still the father of the slain,
Felt a secret dread remain;—
Tho’ nature's self could not evade
Bonds and oaths so strictly made;
Yet Fate, beyond his power to bind,
He knew might some expedient find.
Conven’d afresh each warlike son—
Again the council is begun;
Various clamors rend the hall:
Odin heard and judg’d of all.

VI.
Then, uprising from his place,
Odin—friend of human race,
Strait caprison’d his steed—
Sleipner of etherial breed.
As down to Hela’s realms he drew,
Thick the shades of darkness grew:
The Dog of Hell, with ceaseless bay,
Pursu’d the trav’ller on his way.

VII.
Rous’d from his feast of death, with gore,
His shaggy limbs were crimson’d o’er:
Still round his fangs the fibres hung,
Quiv’ring on his frothy tongue.
He bark’d! and thro’ the void profound,
Hell re-echo’d to the sound.

VIII.
With dauntless soul the hero rode;
Safe he reach’d the dire abode;
Now the sacred portals prest;
Trembling earth the God confest!
Towards the east then bent his way,
Where low beneath the sorceress lay.

IX.
With magic rites the concave rung;
Necromantic airs he sung;
Hyperborean climates view’d;
Runic rhymes^[4] around he strew'd;
Deep the incantation wrought;
Then the maid sepulchral sought.
From the hollow tomb beneath,
Volva’s voice was heard to breathe!

VOLVA.
What mortal he who dares invade
The dwelling where my bones are laid?
The snows of ages long I’ve worn;
Long the driving tempest borne;
Long the rains have drench’d my head;
Long I’ve moulder’d with the dead.

ODIN.
Vegtam is the invader’s name,
Sprung from fires of warlike fame.
Mortal truths will he reveal;
Thou no work of fate conceal.
Tell me for what hero’s shade,
Yon seat with costliest care array’d.
Destin’d for whom, that radiant bed,
Rich with golden trappings spread.

VOLVA.
Lo! for Balder are decreed,
Purest bowls of honey’d mead:
Safe for him they lie conceal’d,
O’er canopy’d by yonder shield.
Drink of Gods shall Balder share;
Asi sons shall drink despair.
More, unwilling I relate—
Leave me, mortal! to my fate.

ODIN.
Sorceress! obey my spell;
Arise and other secrets tell.
By whom shall hapless Balder fall,
Reft from Odin’s chearful hall?

VOLVA.
Long in fate it is decreed,
Brother shall by brother bleed.
Eyeless Hoder soon shall throw,
The unsuspected misseltoe:
Then shall hapless Balder fall,
Reft from Odin’s chearful hall.
More, unwilling I relate—
Leave me, mortal! to my fate.

ODIN.
Longer from thy slumbers stay;
Volva! rise and tell me, pray—
When time shall Hoder’s guilt reveal,
What arm shall wield the avenging steel?
Who the foe of Balder slay,
And on the pile funereal lay?

VOLVA.
Where western suns their circuit run,
To Odin, Rinda^[5] bears a son.
Ere at night he seek his bed;
Ere in dew he bathe his head;
Or wildly streaming to the air,
Trim the luxuriance of his hair;
He shall guilty Hoder slay,
And on the pile funereal lay:
More, unwilling I relate—
Leave me, mortal! to my fate.

ODIN.
Once more now, propitious speak,
Then my homeward way I seek.
Who that virgin^[6] train declare,
Wailing with dishevel’d hair—
They who now with swollen eyes,
Rend their veils with piercing cries?
Ere the incantation cease,
Tell me this and take thy peace.

VOLVA.
Mists of death forsake my brow—
Regal Sire! I know now:
In Vegtam’s borrow’d form appears
The dateless guardian of the spheres.

ODIN.
No longer I esteem thee wise—
Maid in strength thy virtue lies.
Gigantean sons I see;
Sprung from such a source as thee.

VOLVA.
Odin! I thy visit spurn,
Home in triumph now return!
Again no mortal shall presume
To call me from my silent tomb;
Till Lok indignant break his chain,
Twilight round^[7] disastrous reign,
Muspelli their banners raise,
And Surtur wrap^[8] the world in blaze.

1. Asiniæ, Goddesses, wives of the Asi.
2. Balder, this God thought his life was in extreme danger, and told the dreams that he had to that effect to the other Gods. They agree to conjure away all the danger with which he was threatened. Frigga and Odin go through all nature and exact an oath from every thing not to hurt him. Odin still fearing that danger might lurk somewhere, descends into Hela to consult a famous sorceress who lay buried there, by name Volva, to know if fate did indeed require that Balder should die. In the mean time the Gods divert themselves in a grand assembly, and Balder stood as a mark at which they threw darts and stones. But nothing injured him on account of the oath, by which every thing was rendered harmless. Lok personating an old woman, learnt from Frigga, that no oath was exacted from the Misseltoe because it appeared young and feeble. Lok then returned to the sports, and pursuaded Hoder who was blind, to throw a branch of Misseltoe at Balder, which pierced him through and killed him.

   It would not perhaps be refining too much upon this circumstance, to explain it as an Allegory; or to suppose that the disturbance wrought among the Gods by the Misseltoe, was meant to express the opposition which Odin’s religion found from the Druids of the Celtic Nations.

3. “Oracles,”—There were formerly many oracles in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. That at Upsal seems to have been the most famous. Saxo Grammaticus mentions a very noted one also at Delia. These differed very little from those of Greece and Asia, except in exterior splendor. Odin had the power of calling up the souls of the deceased, as appears from this Ode, to know what was transacting in distant countries. This seemed to be a kind of dernier resort in cases of great difficulty.
4. “Runic rhymes.”—The Scalds or Bards of the Scandinavians, boasted a power of disturbing the repose of the dead, and dragging them out of their gloomy abodes, by means of certain songs they knew how to compose. The same ignorance which, made poetry be regarded as something supernatural, persuaded them also, that the letters or Runic characters, included in them certain mysterious and magical properties. There were letters or Runes, to procure victory, to preserve from poison, to relieve women in labor, to cure bodily diseases, to dispel evil thoughts from the mind, to dissipate melancholy, and to soften the severity of a cruel mistress. They employed pretty near the same characters for all these different purposes, but varied the order and combination of the letters. They wrote them either from right to left, or from top to bottom, or in form of a circle, or contrary to the course of the sun. Odin therefore is represented as using a similar expedient.
5. Rinda.—By her Odin had Vali. After Odin understands that his own son should revenge the death of Balder, he asks no more questions concerning the main object of his expedition; but leaves every thing then to the fates. The next thing he asked, was meant to reveal his true character, by way of insulting Volva, who had suffered herself to be deceived by him.
6. “Who that virgin, &c.”—An idea seems here to have entered into the mind of Odin, concerning the general lamentation which should take place through nature, for the recovery of Balder from Hela. The tory is told thus in the Edda of Snorro.—Frigga wished to recover Balder from Death, and for that purpose sent Hermod to Hela, to persuade her to give him up, assuring her at the same time, that all the Gods had been most severely afflicted at his loss. Hela told him she would know whether it was true that Balder was so much beloved, as he had represented. She required, therefore, that all things animate and inanimate, should weep for his death; and in that case she would send him back to the Gods. The Gods, on his return, sent messengers throughout all the world, begging of every thing to weep, in order to deliver Balder from Hell. Then the messengers returned, concluding they had effectually performed their commission: but as they were travelling along, they found in a cavern, an old witch, who called herself Thok; the messengers having besought her, that she would be so good as to shed tears for the deliverance of Balder; she answered in verses to this effect:—“Thok will weep with dry eyes for the funeral of Balder; let all things living or dead weep if they will: but let Hela keep her prey!” It was conjectured that this cursed witch was Lok himself, who never ceased to plague the Gods. He was the cause that Balder was slain; he was also the cause that he could not return to life.
7. “Twilight round.”—The great twilight of the Gods, when the sun shall be darkened, the earth be overwhelmed in the sea, the stars fall from heaven, vapor mixed with fire arise, and heaven itself begin to flame. Then Odin attacks the wolf, and is devoured. At that instant, Vidar coming forward, rends the monster asunder. Thor fights with the great serpent of Midgard, and is killed. The dog Garmer attacks Tyr, and both die in the conflict. Lok and Heimdaller fight, and mutually kill each other. It is thus described in the Voluspa—“Heimdaller lifts up his crooked trumpet, and sounds it aloud. Odin consults the head of Mimer: the Ash is violently shaken and sends forth a groan: The giant bursts his irons. What is doing among the Gods? What “among the Genii? The land of the Giants is filled with uproar; the deities collect and assemble together. The dwarfs sigh and groan before the doors of their caverns. Oh! ye inhabitants of the mountains; can you say whether any thing will yet remain in existence?”

   The description that Seneca the tragedian has given of the end of the world, is not very different from the preceding one; his words are—

   Jam jam legibus obrutis
   Mundo cum veniet dies
   Autralis polus obruet
   Quicquid per Lybiam jacet, &c.
   Arctous polus obruet
   Quicquid subjacet axibus.
   Amissum trepidus polo
   Titan excutiet diem.
   Cæli regia concidens
   Ortus atque obitus trahet
   Atque omnes pariter Deos
   Perdet mors aliqua, et Chaos
   Et mors et fata novissima
   In se constituet sibi
   Quis mundum capiet locus?
   
   
8. “And Surtur wrap.”—In this confusion of all things, the army of evil Genii and Giants, conducted by Surtur, shall break in to attack the Gods. He shall scatter fire around every where, which shall consume all things, and reach even to heaven. But presently after, a new earth springs from the bosom of the waves, adorned with green meadows; the fields there bring forth without culture; calamities are there unknown; a palace is there raised, more shining than the sun, all covered with gold. This is the palace which the just will inhabit, and where they will enjoy delight for ever more. Then the Powerful, the Valiant, He who governs all things, comes forth from his lofty abodes, to render divine justice.