Page:Norse mythology or, the religion of our forefathers, containing all the myths of the Eddas, systematized and interpreted with an introduction, vocabulary and index.djvu/157

      Were the giant's ways:
      Thus I my head did peril.

107. Of a well assumed form
      I made good use:
      Few things fail the wise,
      For Odrærer is now come up
      To men's earthly dwellings.

108. 'Tis to me doubtful,
      That I could have come
      From the giant's courts,
      Had not Gunlad aided me,—
      That good damsel
      Over whom I laid my arm.

109. On the day following
      Came the frost-giants
      To learn something of the High One
      In the High One's hall;
      After Bolverk they inquired,
      Whether he with the gods were come,
      Or Suttung had destroyed him.

110. Odin I believe
      A ring-oath^[1] gave.
      Who in his faith will trust?
       defrauded,
      Of his drink bereft,
      And Gunlad made to weep!

 

111. Time 't is to discourse
      From the speaker's chair.
      By the well of Urd
      I silent sat,
      I saw and meditated,
      I listened to men's words.

1. In the North a holy oath was taken on a ring kept in the temple for
   that purpose.