Page:Icelandic Poetry or the Edda of Sæmund (1797).pdf/65

Great Bergelmer^[1] had his birth:
Thrudgelmer^[2] was his father’s name—
He from great Aurgelmer^[3] came.

GANRADE.
This sixth thing tell, since thou art wise,
And sacred truth thy speech supplies;
Whence, number’d ’mongst the Jötni sons,
Of eldest birth Aurgelmer comes?

VAFTHRUDNIS.
From eastern Elivagi^[4] strands,
Black drops of venom dy’d the lands;

1. Bergelmer—Noah, from Berg, a mountain, and Gemler, an old man.
2. Thrudgelmer—Lamech.
3. Aurgelmer—Adam.
4. Elivagi.—The streams of the Volga are here supposed to be meant. In this and the following verses the poet explains in a confused manner, the Creation of Man. First, he hints at the materials of creation: then at the creation of man: and thirdly, at the antediluvian world, the wickedness of which occasioned the destruction of the Jötni by a deluge.