Icelandic Poetry/Wisdom of Alviss

ARGUMENT.

This ode appears to be written to shew the excellence of the Icelandic language, in being able to furnish such a variety of names for every indivdual thing. These, the translator has been obliged to express, in most instances, by a periphrasis. The subject of it is a certain Dwarf, who calls himself Alviss, or All-Wise, that prides himself in having seen the nine worlds, and makes a pedantic display of his knowledge before Thor. He comes from Asgard, to demand the daughter of Thor in marriage. Thor acknowledges that his daughter had been promised to him, but refuses to give her up, on account of his absence when the agreement was entered into. He, however, leaves the dwarf some hope of obtaining her, by the display of his superior knowledge. This he did for the purpose of detaining the dwarf till next morning; for he was of that species of Genii who shun the light. At the conclusion of the discourse, the dwarf was forced to depart without his bride, and not without some danger of his life. By this artifice Thor seemed not to have violated the rights of hospitality, or to have broken his engagement; and the danger to which the dwarf was exposed, could be attributed to nothing but his own temerity.

THE

WISDOM of ALVISS.

ALVISS.
I have strewd each fragrant flower,And deck'd with care the bridal bower:Let the plighted virgin spread,The nuptial veil around her head;Bid her kindred long adieu,And back with me her way purfue,Years matur'd and youthful powerLoud demand the bridal hour.Fate! forbid each rude annoyTo blast the spring time of our joy.

THOR.

What youth art thou approaching near,With that pallid look of fear?

Late from climes dost thou return,Where flames of livid sulphur burn?That thus, to each beholder's view,Thou wear'st their derivated hue.By all Valhalla's Gods I swear,Hence my child thou shalt not bear!

ALVISS.Alviss my name — In shades I dwell,Neighbouring to the shores of Hell.There underneath a steep rock's side,In caves of darkness, I reside.Late those realms ] left this night,To wander till the morning light.Let me not my errand rue,Chieftain! To thy word be true.

THOR.Words are changeful as the wind,And never meant a God to bind.I the privilege will use,A Husband for my child to choose.

When she was plighted to thy loveWith Gods I banquetted above.^[1]Dwarf, my last resolve receive!To thee my child I will not give.

ALVISS.

Who is he that dares prefume,Thus to fix a daughter's doom?Can he love's fierce fires control,Or chase the passions from the soul?

All, believe me, know thy pride;They know thy littleness beside:Where are the lands spread wide and fair,That own thee for their rightful heir?THOR, Thor the thunderer! lo I stand—I have travers'd every land:

Valfander* is my glorious fire!Hence with unblest speed retire.Badly has thy errand sped—Thou my daughter shalt not wed.ALVISS.Truth and honor both conspireTo make thee yield to my desire.But tho' thy scorn I plainly see,Thy Son-in-law I still would be.THOR.Learned Guest†! I wish to grant,All thy ardent wishes want.Freely I my daughter's charms,Yield to thine expectant arms;by wisdom thou can'st prove,

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* VALFANDER, one of the names of Odin.

† "Learned Guest." — Thor changes his tone,and begins to flatter him, that he might moreeasily engage him in some long disquisition.

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A just pretension to her love.Thy stores of knowledge open now—I will question—answer thou.

ALVIS.

Tho' thy purpose Thor! I know,The trial I will undergo.I'll unravel ev'ry mazeMalicious artifice can raise.Skill'd in mysteries profound,I have travell'd nine worlds round!

THOR.

Alviss, lift the veil that hides,Where nature secretly resides.For gentle Dwarf! I know thee well—Master of each mystic spell.What name is to that Glebe assign'd—The fertile nurse of human-kind?

ALVISS.

They, who spring from mortal birth,Call that glebe the parent earth:Afi, unexhausted wealth;Source of happiness and health:Vani, with presageful mind,Grave and storehouse of mankind:Giants, who to woods reſort,A russet champaign for their sport:Alfi, born to gentler doom,Treasury of vernal bloom:Gods, whom heaven and earth obey,Call it by the name of clay.

THOR.Alvis! Lift the veil that hides,Where nature secretly resides:For gentle Dwarf! I know thee well,Master of each mystic spell.What titles do the heavens receive,'neath which the race of mortals live?

ALVISS.

Mortals call the heavens on highThe blue pavilion of the sky:Gods above, the exterior rind,Form'd the kernel earth to bind:The heavens, Vani, call the source,Whence sweep the whirlwinds angry course:Giants, who in war delight,The plain where Gods contending fight:Alfi, with domes emblazon'd high,The starry cieling of the sky:Duergi sons the concave view,And call it parent of the dew.

THOR.

Alviss! lift the veil that hidesWhere nature ſecretly reſides:For, gentle Dwarf, I know thee well—Master of each mystic spell.

What names denote the Queen of night,That guides the lone heath-wanderer right.

ALVISS.

Mortals call that orb of light,Friendly visitant of night:They who o'er the heavens preside,Ruler of the swelling tide:Who in shades of Hela lie,The wandering sister of the sky:Giants hail the moon afar,Swift messenger from star to star:Nani, call her milder ray,Handmaid to the God of day:Alfi, name the changeful sphere,Regulator of the year.

THOR.Alviss! lift the veil that hides,Where nature secretly resides:Tell me, gentle Dwarf! the name,Borne by yon daily wandering flame.

ALVISS.

Sun by those the nations rove:Star of day by Gods above:Pygmies, the solar regent call,The fiery^[2] petrifying ball:Giants, the fountain ever bright,Of unexhausted heat and light:Alfi sons, the etherial carThat sends its bickering radiance far.Asori, splendid God of Fire,Whose roving footsteps never tire.

THOR.Alviss! lift the veil that hides,Where nature secretly resides:;Tell me what names the clouds denote,That widely o'er the nations float.

ALVISS.

Men, call the clouds that fail on high,The fertile shadowings of the sky:Gods, whom indignation warms,The flying magazine of storms:Vani, wise in mystic things,Chariots of contending winds:Giants, call the cloudy train,Omens of descending rain:Alfi sons, since time began,Stormy visiters of man:The Hela race, who dread the light,Call them the friendly veils of night.

THOR.

Alvifs! lift the veil that hides,Where nature secretly resides:Tell me what names denote the wind,That sweeps unseen o'er humankind.

ALVISS.

Men call the winds o'er earth that fly,Contending brethren of the sky:

Gods, who on their bosom glide,Name them their soft etherial tide:Lesser deities, who roveBy hill, by fountain, or by grove,And love the gentle pure serene,Call them the noisy sons of spleen :Giants, when they thunder by,Name them the clarions of the sky :Duergi, view a wreathing snake,When eddying gusts a whirlwind make.

THOR.

Alviss! lift the veil that hides,Where nature secretly resides.What are the names that ocean bore,Since man advent'rous ploughed it o'er ?

ALVISS.

Man, who within its bossom pries,Calls it the mirror of the skies^[3]:

Gods, that thro' all nature view,The eternal source of rain and dew:Vani, the vagrant of the shores,Meand'ring thro' a thousand pores:Giants, the stormy ocean make,The wide dominions of ^[4]the snake:Alfi, name the ocean bed,Source of ev'ry fountain head:Duergi sons, who o'er it sweep,Call it the unfathomable deep.

THOR. Alviss! lift the veil that hides,Where nature secretly resides:The names of Fire now recite,That cheers the gloomy brow of night.

ALVISS.Mortals know it by the nameOf soul-invigorating flame:Alfi, call the glowing hearth,Centre of convivial mirth:Vani sons, the latent tide,That flows thro' all creation wide:Giants, the unconquerable power,Doom'd creation to devour:Duergi sons, a prisoner mild,But freed from chains, a maniac wild;Hela, the tyrant of a day,Ruling with resistless sway,

THOR.Alviss! lift the veil that hides,Where nature secrctly resides:Tell me what names to woods belong,Resounding oft with vocal song?

ALVISS.Men call the wild impervions wood,The empire of the shaggy brood:

Heroes of celestial birth,The bristles of the monster earth:The infernal train that Hela fills,The unshorn honors of the hills:Giants call each woodland maze,Food of all-consuming blaze:Alfi, nymphs whose spreading arms,Shine annually with vernal charms:Vani, call the cloud-capt pine,Wand of potentates divine.

THOR.Alviss! lift the veil that hides,Where nature secretly resides:What titles by the night are claim'd,Offspring of black Norver nam'd.

ALVISS.Mortals proclaim the pitchy night,Day of fanciful delight:Gods declare the sullen hour,Dewy nurse of plant and flower:

Giants, call it time obscure,When Genii to destruction lure:Alfi, the dark mysterious womb,Whence dreams in bright succession come,Duergi, hag, whose mystic sweep,Weaves the subtle web of sleep.

THOR.Alviss! lift the veil that hides,Where nature secretly resides.Tell me what names the harvest yields,That waves o'er bright autumnal fields.

ALVISS.Mortals call the auspicious grain,Golden effluence of the plain:Gods, that roll the circling sphere,The last, best bounty of the year:Vani, wealth, with sweat and toil,Extracted from the stubborn soil:Giants, who delight in blood,Call the harvest, courser's food;

Alfi, who at feasts regale,Name it stamina of ale:Ducrgi, call the golden leas,Bending path-ways of the breeze.

THOR.Alviss! lift the veil that hides,Where nature secretly resides:Say what denotes the mantling ale,On which the sons of earth regale?

ALVISS.Mortals call it liquor rare,To soothe the sullen brow of care:Alfi, drink of power divine,To make the face of sorrow shine:Vani, call the amber bowl,Source of vigor to the soul:Giant sons, the potent charm,'That stimulates to fight the arm:Hela's race, the noblest meed,That Gods to mortals have decreed: Suttungi sons, the beverage praise,And call it length’ner of days.

THOR.Alviss! I’ve never seen I vow,A mortal half so wise as thou:But still thy wisdom could not see,The depth of my duplicity.Haste, Dwarf! up eastern hills afarDellinger drives his glittering car.

1. Dwarf.— The Dwarfs were a species of beings bred in the dust of the earth; just as worms are in a dead carcase. It was in the body of the Giant Hymer that they were first engendered, and began to move and live. At first they were only worms; but by order of the Gods, they at length partook of both human shape and reason. They always dwell in subterraneous caverns, and among rocks.

   Edda of Snorro.

   This passage from Snorro deserves attention. We may discover here, one of the effects of that ignorant prejudice, which has made us for so many ages, regard all arts and handicrafts, as the occupation of mean people and slaves. Our Celtic and Gothic ancestors, imagining there was something magical, and beyond the reach of man, in mechanical skill, could scarcely believe that an able artist was one of their own species, or descended from the same common origin, Let us consider what might facilitate the entrance of such an idea into their minds. There were, perhaps, some neighbouring people, who bordered upon one of the Celtic or Gothic tribes; and who, although less warlike than themselves, and much inferior in strength and stature, might yet excel them in dexterity: and addicting themselves to manual arts, might carry on a commerce with them, sufficiently extensive to have the fame of it spread conſiderably far. All these circumstances will agree very well with the Laplanders; who are still as famous for their magic, as remarkable for the lowness of their stature: pacific even to a degree of cowardice; but of a mechanic industry, which formerly must have appeared very considerable. The stories which were invented concerning this people, passing through the mouths of so many ignorant relaters, would soon acquire all the degrees of the marvellous, of which they were susceptible. Thus, as we see in ancient romances, the dwarfs soon: became the forgers of enchanted armour; on which neither swords nor conjurations could make any impression. They were possessed of caverns full of treasure, entirely at their own disposal. As the dwarfs were feeble and but of small courage, they were supposed to be crafty, and full of deceit and artifice, This, which in old romances is called Disloyalty, is the character always given them in those fabulous narrations.

   Even at this time, the notion is not every where exploded, that there are, in the bowels of the earth, Fairies, or a kind of dwarfish and tiny beings, of human shape, remarkable for their riches, their activity, and malevolence. Shakspeare, availing himself of these popular notions, made, perhaps, a creation of his own, and amuses the world, to this day, with the vagaries of Puck and Oberon. In many countries of the North, the people are still firmly persuaded of their existence. In Iceland, they shew the very rocks and hills, in which they maintain, that there are swarms of these small subterraneous men, of the most tiny size, but most delicate figures.

2. "The fiery." — The Duergi or Pygmies were a nation of Genii who shunned the light; and it was anciently believed, that if ever they were exposed to the rays of the sun, they would be turned into stone.
3. "Mirror of the skies."—
   Nuper me in littore vidi Quum placidum ventis staret mare.Virgil.
   
   Ειζ αλα δερκομενα, τα δε νιν καλα κυμαίαφαινει ασυχα καχλαζονια, επ αιγιαλοιο θεουσαν.
   

   Theocritus.
   
4. "Of the snake," — The Serpent of Midgard.