Voluspo
6. [1] Then sought the godstheir assembly-seats,
The holy ones,and council held;
Names then gave theyto noon and twilight,
Morning they named,and the waning moon.
Night and evening,the years to number.
The holy ones,and council held;
Names then gave theyto noon and twilight,
Morning they named,and the waning moon.
Night and evening,the years to number.
7. [2] At Ithavoll metthe mighty gods,
Shrines and templesthey timbered high;
Forges they set,and they smithied ore,
Tongs they wrought,and tools they fashioned.
Shrines and templesthey timbered high;
Forges they set,and they smithied ore,
Tongs they wrought,and tools they fashioned.
8. [3] In their dwellings at peacethey played at tables.
Of gold no lackdid the gods then know,—
Till thither came upgiant-maids three.
Huge of might,out of Jotunheim.
Of gold no lackdid the gods then know,—
Till thither came upgiant-maids three.
Huge of might,out of Jotunheim.
- ↑ Possibly an interpolation, but there seems no strong reason for assuming this. Lines 1-2 are identical with lines 1-2 of stanza 9, and line 2 may have been inserted here from that later stanza.
- ↑ Ithavoll ("Field of Deeds"?): mentioned only here and in stanza 60 as the meeting-place of the gods; it appears in no other connection.
- ↑ Tables: the exact nature of this game, and whether it more closely resembled chess or checkers, has been made the subject of a 400-page treatise, Willard Fiske's "Chess in Iceland." Giant-maids: perhaps the three great Norns, corresponding to the three fates ; cf . stanza 20 and note. Possibly, however, something has been lost after this stanza, and the missing passage, replaced by the catalogue of the dwarfs (stanzas 9-16), may have explained the "giant-maids" otherwise than as Norns. In Vafthruthnismol, 49, the Norns (this time "three throngs" instead of simply "three") are spoken of as giant-maidens;
as daughter and son of Mundilferi, cf. Vafthruthnismol, 23 and note, and Grimnismol, 37 and note.
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