Page:Icelandic Poetry or the Edda of Sæmund (1797).pdf/51

By great Vafthrudnis long possess’d.
There Ygger^[1] fees the chief of men!

ODIN.
All hail Vafthrudnis! Odin then—
Lo! to thy halls unknown I came,
To learn and spread thy wond’rous fame:
And first I pray thee, giant! tell,
If sacred wisdom with thee dwell?

VAFTHRUDNIS.
What mortal he who dares to come,
Unbidden, to my awful dome
To hold discourse? For never more
Shall he his homeward path explore;
Unless he haply should exceed,
What wisdom is to me decreed.

1. Ygger, one of the names of Odin, signifying suspicious or careful.