Skírnismǫ́l
The Lay of Skirnir
Old Norse Poetry
English translation (1928) by Lee M Hollander.
Transcription by Eiður Eyþórsson.
I
About this translation
This Lee M. Hollander’s translation of Skírnismál comes from his 1928, 1st edition of The Poetic Edda. In that work, the poem is presented in English translation, accompanied by Hollander’s notes and commentary, on pages 75-84.
Hollander’s work has been preserved as closely as possible to the form in which it was originally presented. The poem and its accompanying commentary remain unchanged.
Hollander’s notes on individual stanzas have been moved, so that they now appear directly beneath the relevant stanza; in the printed edition, they were placed at the bottom of each page. At the end of this page, you will find Hollander’s original introductory to Skírnismál.
Here Begins Skírnismál
Frey, the son of Niorth,¹ had seated himself one day on Hlithskialf² and looked over all the worlds. Then saw he in the world of etins a fair maiden as she went from the hall of her father to her bower. And that sight made him heavy of heart. Skírnir³ was the name of Frey’s follower. Niorth bade him to make Frey speak out. Skathi⁴ said:
1
“Arise now, Skírnir, and ready make thee
to summon my son,
and find out this from the wise youth,
whom he doth hate.”
2
Skírnir said:
“For waspish words I well make look,
if I summon thy son
to find out this from the wise youth,
whom he doth hate.”
3
Skírnir said:
“Wilt tell me, Frey, foremost among gods,
and answer me as I ask:
why sittest thou lonely, my lord, all day
on Hlithskialf in the hall?”
4
Frey said:
“How tell thee my yearning, oh youth, as thou wishest—
why heavy my heart?
The alf’s-beam⁵ shineth all these long days,
but lesser grows not my longing.”
⁵Kenning for ‘the sun’; cf. Vaf 47.
5
Skírnir said:
“Thy heart’s not so heavy, I hold, but thou mayst
open it to another;
for in days of yore we young were together:
truly thou mightest trust me.”
6
Frey said:
“From on high I beheld in the halls of Gymir⁶
a maiden to my mind;
her arms did gleam, their glamour filled
all the sea and the air.”
⁶A giant.
7
“This maiden is to me more dear
than maiden to any man;
but æsir and alfs all will have it
that strangers aye we stay.”
8
⁷ “(In my behalf her hand shalt ask,
and home bring her hither,
her father let or allow it:
good shall thy guerdon be.)”
⁷This stanza is not in the original; but the paraphrase of Snorri (Gylfag. chap. 37) shows that a stanza no less has dropped out here. It is supplied, following Gering.
9
Skírnir said:
“Thy steed then lend me to lift me o’er weird
ring of flickering flame,
the sword also that swings itself
against the tribe of trolls.”⁸
10
Frey said:
“My steed I lend thee to lift thee o’er weird
ring of flickering flame,”
the sword also which swings itself,
if wise he who wields it.”
⁸Frey will miss his sword in the last combat; cf. Lok. 42, where Loki alleges that it was given away as a bridal gift to Gerth.
11
Skírnir said to his steed:
“Night is it now, now we shall fare
over moist mountains,
to the thurses’ throng;
scatheless we both shall scape their might,
or else both be ta’en by the trolls.”
Skírnir rode into etin-home and to Gymir’s court. There were savage dogs tied to the gate of the enclosure which was about Gerth’s bower. Skírnir rode to where a shepherd sate on a mound, and greeted him:
12
“Say thou, shepherd, sitting on hill,
who doest watch all ways:
how win I the welcome of the winsome maid
through the grim hounds of Gymir?”
13
The shepherd said:
“Whether art thou doomed, or dead already,
(in the stirrup who standest)?⁹
Never shalt thou win the welcome to have
of the good daughter of Gymir.”
⁹ Inserted with Grundtvig.
14
Skírnir said:
“Ne’er a whit will whine, whatso betide,
who is eager on errand bent;
my fate is foretold me to the time of a day,
laid out is all my life.”
15
Gerth said:
⁹a“What outcry and uproar within our courts
hear I now, handmaid?”
The earth doth shake and all my father
Gymir’s high halls.”
⁹a We must assume that Skírnir has caused his steed to leap over the wall of flame.
16
The handmaid said:
“By his steed here stands a stranger hero,
unbridles and baits him;
(he wishes, I ween, welcome to have
from the good daughter of Gymir).”¹⁰
¹⁰ An obvious gap here is supplied, following Bugge’s suggestion.
17
Gerth said:
“Bid to my bower the bold-minded come,
to meet me and drink our mead;
though far from us, I fear me, is not
my brother’s banesman.”¹¹
18
Gerth said:
“Whether art of the alfs or of æsir come,
or art thou a wise van?¹²
Through flickering flame why farest alone
to behold our halls?”
¹² The different races of gods.
19
Skírnir said:
“Neither alf am I, nor of æsir come
nor, either, a wise van;
through flickering flame yet fared I alone
to behold your halls.”
20
“Apples eleven have I all golden;
to thee, Gerth, I shall give them,
to hear from thy lips thou lovest Frey,
and deemest him dearest to thee.”
21
Gerth said:
“Thy apples eleven not e’er shall I take
to do any wight’s will;
nor shall I ever with Niorth’s son Frey
dwell while our lives do last.”
22
Skírnir said:
“Draupnir¹³ the ring thy dowry shall be,
which with Baldr was burned;
eight rings as dear will drop from it
every ninth night.”
¹³ ‘Dripper’. This ring had been given Óthin by a dwarf (Skáld. chap. 35). After Baldr was burned on the pyre, he returned the ring to Óthin from Hel (Gylfag. chap. 49).
23
Gerth said:
“Draupnir the ring I do not want,
though it with Baldr was burned;
gold I lack not in Gymir’s halls,
to deal out daily.”¹⁴
¹⁴ Which is the wont of princes; cf. e.g. Ríg. 39.
24
Skírnir said:
“This mottled blade, doest, maiden, see it
which here in my hand I hold?
Thy haughty head I hew from thy neck
but thou yield thy love to the youth.”
25
Gerth said:
“Nor gold nor sword will gain it over me
to do any wight’s will;
if Gymir, my father, did find thee here,
full soon would he slay thee.”
26
Skírnir said:
“This mottled blade, dost, maiden, see it,
which here I hold in my hand?
Before its edge the etin falls,
and is thy father fey.
27
“With this magic wand bewitch thee I shall,
maiden, to do my will;
where the sons of men will see thee no more,
thither shalt thou!”
28
“On the eagle-hill¹⁵ shalt ever sit,
and nod toward Niflhel;¹⁶
thy food shalt find far more loathsome
than men the slimy snake.”
¹⁵ Possibly, a kenning for ‘mountain peak’.
¹⁶ ‘Dark Hel’, the abode of the dead.
29
“An ugly sight when out thou goest,
even Hrímnir¹⁷ will stare at
and every hind glare at;¹⁸
more well-known wilt be than the watch of the gods,¹⁹
and grin through the grate.²⁰
¹⁷ ‘Frost Giant’ (?).
¹⁸ There is rime here in the original.
¹⁹ I.e. Heimdall, the warder of the gods. Cf. Lok. 48.
²⁰ She is to be kept a prisoner of the giants, which also the following stanzas imply.
30
“Shalt drivel and dote, and drag thy fetters,
with salt tears shalt sorrow;
shalt sit as I say, with sorrow heavy,
and twofold torment.²¹”
²¹ A very difficult stanza.
31
“Imps shall nip thee, all the long days
thou art with the etins;
for play shall weeping thy pastime be:
live a loathly life with tears!
32
“With three-headed thurs thou then shalt dwell,
or else unwedded be;
lust shall lash thee,
weakness waste thee:
be like the thistle which is thrust under,
when the harvest is brought home.²²
²² In explanation of these lines, M. Olsen has called attention to the Esthonian harvest custom of laying a thistle weighted with a stone into an window opening, which is to prevent damage from malicious grain demons.
33
“To the woods I wended, to the wet forest,
a magic wand me to make,
and a magic wand I made me.
34
“Thou hast angered Óthin, the uppermost god;
Frey will frown on thee,
thou wicked wench! Woe betide thee,
thou hast got the great gods’ wrath.
35
“Hear ye, frost-giants, hear ye etins,
ye sons of Suttung,²³ all ye sibs of the æsir:
how I forbid, how I debar
men’s mirth to the wench,
men’s love to the wench.”
²³ Cf. Hǫ́v. 103. Here, for the giant-tribe in general.
36
“Hrímgrímnir is hight who shall have thee, a thurs,
Niflhel beneath:
thou shalt fare each day to the frost-giants’ hall,
cringe under curse,
cringe under care.”
37
“Slavering slaves shall serve thee ’neath tree-roots
with staling of stinking goats.
No other drink shalt ever get,
wench at thy will,
wench at my will!”
38
A ‘thurs’-rune²⁴ for thee, and three more, I scratch:
lechery, loathing, and lust;
off I shall scratch them, as on I did scratch them,
if of none there be need.”
²⁴ The symbol þ, in Old Norse called thurs.—The runes (probably scratched on the limb of a tree, as in Sigrdr. 10) may be scraped off again, when their magic effect ceases.
39
Gerth said:
“Hail, rather, hero, and hold to thy lips
this crystal cup with mead—;
though hardly thought I that hence I should fare,
a van’s wife to be.”
40
Skírnir said:
“My errand I would know altogether,
ere home I hie me:
when art minded to meet the strong one,
and welcome the wise son of Niorth?”
41
Gerth said:
“Barri is hight, as both we know,
for true love a trysting glade:
after nights nine to Niorth’s son there
will Gerth grant her love.”
Then rode Skírnir home. Frey stood without and greeted him and asked what tidings he brought:
42
“Say now, Skírnir, ere thou unsaddle the steed
and set a foot forward:
what errand bringest thou from etin-home,
of mark for thee and me?”
43
Skírnir said:
“Barri is hight, as both we know,
for true love a trysting glade.
After nights nine to Niorth’s son there
will Gerth grant her love.”
44
Frey said:
Long is a night, longer are two,—
how shall I thole three?
Shorter to me a month oft seemed,
than half this hovering time.”²⁵
²⁵ The last line is uncertain.
III
Introductory note
Hardly another poem in the Edda so appeals to the modern and, probably, to universal taste. Indeed, here we see the epic-dramatic technique of the North at its best—and the subject is a romantic love-myth that speaks to us all. The workmanship is excellent. Though entirely dialogic, the poem never leaves us in doubt of either place or drift of the action—the explanatory prose might well be dispensed with; and with surprising skill we are made to visualize the appearance, and divine the character, of the actors.
Beginning and ending with love-sick Frey, the poet delegates all the action to the god’s alter ego, his devoted follower and friend Skírnir who with intrepidity accomplishes his mission and overcomes the resistance of the fair giant maiden by the fear of his rune magic, after both promises of gifts and threats of force have failed.
In point of the arrangement and the handling of his material the poet probably owes little to the myth. It has recently been urged with some plausibility that we have in this ‘lay’ actually the dramatized rites of a Frey cult celebrating the god’s annual union with the fertility goddess. We can, however, just discern the consciously working author, in frequent verbal reminiscences of other Eddic lays, and in his struggle with the material to be fashioned. Most interesting in his treatment of the ljóðaháttr stanzas which, regular at the beginning, become swaying and incoherent, with barbarous assonances, when the terrific imprecations fill them to overflowing, but resume their regular gait toward the tranquil end.
The tradition is, on the whole, fair. Only some of the courses defy certain interpretation. The poem is found complete in Cod. Reg., whereas Cod. Arn. breaks off after 27. Snorri’s paraphrase is significantly brief: for his purposes, the lay seemed deficient in epic details.
Norway is (doubtfully) assigned as the home of the lay, on account of the mention of the thistle, which was not indigenous in Iceland. There are no definite clues as to the time of its origin (Tenth Century?).
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