expose falsehood (22-23). Wherefore, though hard beset, I will patiently wait till Death lay me by my loved ones in the tomb on Digra-ness.'
St. 1. Poesy] Odin stole poesy from the giants. See also st. 2.
3. He who] Commentators give up as desperate the first four lines. Some suppose they continue the mythological account of the origin of poetry. Ought they not rather to state the subject, Egil's loss? There is the word 'blameless,' and the word 'boat,' and that is about all that is certainly intelligible. The translator has ventured to suppose Bodvar the 'blameless one (cf. st. 19 for words about Gunnar's guilelessness); and the 'boat' to be the luckless boat that caused his death.
It is agreed that the last four lines of st. 3 mean that Egil hears the beating of the wave on the tomb of his father upon Digra-ness. The blood flowing from a slain giant Ymir formed the sea according to the Edda.
6. gap] The same word was used by Hacon in ch. lxvi. of the loss inflicted by Egil's kin on Harold's house.
7. strand] So Eric is called in ch. lxii. 'strong strand of Harold's family.'
11. laid hand] i.e., had he lived to reach his full warrior strength. Others (less probably) interpret the four lines 'had he lived to reach manhood before Odin took him away by death.'
13. brotherless] By the death of Thorolf. But some refer this to Arinbjorn.
weak-winged] Or 'faltering in flight.' He means that he often misses Thorolf. He said that he should oſten rue his loss: ch. liv.
15, 16] With these as usually arranged there seems no coherence. With the transposition of stanzas 15 and 16 all seems to hang together. Brotherlessness, sonlessness take up 13-15: then complaint of the degeneracy of the times, 16-17.
17. bees' home] Or 'beehive:' býskip may be the English 'bee-skep' or 'bee-skip,' which is common for beehive in provincial English. Egil having been much in England would probably have heard the word; nor is there any strong proof that it would not have been understood by his hearers. Or skip might be taken as 'covering, vault, dome' (σκέπας): and the rendering be 'bee-dome.' It is at any rate more likely that býskip (even if 'bees' ship') means 'bee-hive,' than that 'ship of bees' means the sky or heaven, because bees live there. Nor does it seem very far-fetched to compare the realms of the swarming countless dead to a 'beehive.' Some northern scholars think that for býskips should be some other word, a name of Odin, then 'the home of Odin' would of course be heaven, i.e., Valhalla. But it is questionable if it be necessary to suppose the text corrupt.
[The passage was discussed by the translator in a paper read before the Camb. Phil. Soc.]
18. drooping brow] Cf. the description of Egil at Athelstan's board after Thorolf's death on Vinheath, ch. lv.
19. a son] Gunnar,
20. friend of men] Odin: so also are 'Vilir's brother,' and 'Mimir's friend' below.
22. Now victim] A curious renunciation. No more will I worship one who fails at need,
boot for bale] As an after-thought Egil bethinks him that he has some compensation in poetry. So he will be patient, and, while not hurrying death, will welcome it. Of Egil's delight in poetry we hear in the next chapter, where he and another poet make friends.
24. Of Odin's captive] Hela was sister of the monster wolf of northern mythology.
Ch. LXXXII.—King Hacon] His rule, here said to be long, was for
