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ODIN.
Once more now, propitious speak,
Then my homeward way I seek.
Who that virgin[1] 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.
Once more now, propitious speak,
Then my homeward way I seek.
Who that virgin[1] 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.
- ↑ “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
