Hárbarthsljóþ
The Lay of Harbarth
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 Hárbarðsljóð 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.
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 Hárbarðsljóð.
Here Begins Hárbarðsljóð
Thór was on his way back from the East¹ and came to a sound. On the other shore there was the ferryman² with his boat. Thór called out:
¹ That is, from the giant-world, whither he goes frequently “to slay trolls”, cf. 23.
² Note that here, as in Sinfj., Óthin appears as a ferryman (for the dead); cf. Hermes-Mercurius.
1
“Who is the fellow there by the ferry who stands.”
2
The ferryman said:
“Who is the fellow there over the firth who calls?”
3
Thór said:
“Ferry me over the firth! I shall feed thee this morn:
In the basket on my back is the best of foods.
My fill of it had I by my fireside,
of herrings and oats,³ ere from home I fared.”
³ The homely fare of the yeoman’s god.
4
The ferryman said:
“An early deed thou deemst thy meal; but doest thou know
that down-hearted thy home-folks? I heard thy mother was dead.”⁴
⁴ Thór’s mother is Fiorgyn ‘the Earth’ (cf. below 56 and Vsp. 48), whose death would fill everyone with dismay.
5
Thór said:
“That sayest thou now which seemeth to all
most mournful to hear: that my mother be dead.”
6
The ferryman said:
“Me thinketh unlikely that three farms thou ownest,⁵
for barefoot thou art, and in beggar’s clothes;
scarce whole are the breeks on thy buttocks.”
⁵ The connection is probably this: you are of too little account that the death of your mother should make such a stir.
7
Thór said:
“Steer hither the dugout, the haven I shall show thee;
but who owns the boat which thou hast yonder?”
8
The ferryman said:
“He is Hildolf⁶ hight who bade me helmsman be,
the swift sea-king by Ráthsey-sound who dwells;
he bade me to fetch not ragged fellows nor horse-thieves,
but goodly men only whose goings I knew.
Now say thy name if over the sound thou wilt.”
⁶ ‘Battle-Wolf’, i.e. ‘Warrior’.
9
Thór said:
“I shall utter my name though outlawed I were,
and eke of all my kin: I am Óthin’s son,
Meili’s brother, Magni’s⁷ father,
a god strong in thews: ’tis with Thór thou speakest.
This now I ask what thy name be.”
⁷ ‘Strength’. The name and functions of Meili remain unexplained.
10
The ferryman said:
“I am Hárbarth⁸ hight, I hide my name but seldom.”
⁸ ‘Hoar-Beard’, i.e. Óthin; cf. Grímn. 49.
11
Thór said:
“Why shouldst thou hide thy name but thou hadst good cause?”
12
Hárbarth said:
“Even though sought⁹ I were: from such as thou
I would fend my life but I were fey and doomed.”
⁹ I.e. for some misdeed; outlawed.
13
Thór said:
“A weary thing it were to me
to wade through the water to thee, and so wet my nether parts;
would I maul thee, knave, for thy mocking speech
if I could but come over the sound.”
14
Hárbarth said:
“Here shall I stand till thou hither comest;
no hardier foe shalt find, now Hrungnir¹⁰ is dead.”
¹⁰ A mountain giant, the largest of the tribe. He challenges Thór to single combat and is felled by the hammer; Skáld. chap. 17.
15
Thór said:
“How Hrungnir I fought thou hast heard aright,
the stubborn etin who a stone bore as head;
yet felled I the fiend, before me he lay.
What didst thou meanwhile, Hárbarth?”
16
Hárbarth said:
on that island which is Algrœn hight;
“Was I with Fiolvar full five winters
there war we did wage and waded in blood,
tried many deeds, and maidens lured.”¹¹
¹¹ Nothing is known about this myth. Is it merely a hoax to satisfy Thór’s curiosity? At any rate, the name Fiolvar ‘The Very Cautious’ and Algræn ‘All-Green’ i.e the Earth’, seem gotten up ad hoc.
17
Thór said:
“Did you win the love of the women?”
18
Hárbarth said:
“Merry had been the maids, if but meek they had been;
friendly had been the women, if but fond they had been:¹²
of sand under waves they wound their ropes,
out of deep dales they dug forth the ground.¹³
With wily words I outwitted them all,
with the sisters seven I slept,
my will I worked with them all.
What didst thou meanwhile, Thór?”
¹² Óthin is still teasing Thór with his if’s.
¹³ These activities seem to have reference to river or sea goddesses. The ropes of sand are the ripple marks in the sand near the shore of the sea and near rivers; the mountain torrent dig deep gashes.
19
Thór said:
“Strong Thiazi, the thurs, I overthrew in battle,¹⁴
and the awful eyes of Alvaldi’s son¹⁵
I cast on the cloudless sky;
those be the mighty marks of my great works,
which all men since may see.
What didst thou meanwhile, Hárbarth?”
¹⁴ According to Bragar. chap. 56, all the gods slew him; cf. also Lok. 50.
¹⁵ I.e. Thiazi. His eyes were cast up to the sky (by Óthin, Bragar. 56) and became stars, to appease his daughter Skathi.
20
Hárbarth said:
“With love-spells mighty I lured witch-women,
and made them forsake their mates;
a hardy thurs Hlébarth me seemed:
a magic wand he gave me,
but I wiled him out of his wits.”¹⁶
¹⁶ Nothing is known of the exploits referred to in this stanza.
21
Thór said:
“Then thou gavest back ill for good.”
22
Hárbarth said:
“One man’s ill is the other man’s luck;
in such things each for himself!
What didst thou meanwhile, Thór?”
23
Thór said:
“In Eastland was I and etins slew,
wanton wenches who warred on mountains:
much might had the etins if all did live,
little might had men then in Mithgarth’s round.
What didst thou meanwhile, Hárbarth?”
24
Hárbarth said:
In Valland¹⁷ was I and waged battles,
egged on the atheling, nor ever made peace.¹⁸
Gets Óthin all earls slain by edge of swords,
but Thór, the breed of thralls.”¹⁹
¹⁷ ‘Land of the Battlefields’.
¹⁸ This is the prevailing conception of Óthin’s activities.
¹⁹ As this assertion is not borne out elsewhere it seems made to twit Thór.
25
Thór said:
“Uneven wouldst thou deal to æsir their followers,
if too great might were given thee.”
26
Hárbarth said:
“Enough strength hath Thór, but a stout heart nowise:
in faint-hearted fear wast fooled in a glove,
and in utter dread thou didst not dare
to fart or sneeze, lest Fialar heard it.”²⁰
27
Thór said:
“Hárbarth, thou coward, to Hel I would send thee,
if but over the sound I could reach.”
28
Hárbarth said:
“Why shouldst thou reach over the sound, as I slighted thee nowise?
What didst thou meanwhile, Thór?”
29
Thór said:
“In the East was I and Ifing²¹ guarded,
when Svárang’s sons sought to kill me:
huge stones they hurled, yet they strove in vain,
they begged for peace when overborne they were.
What didst thou, meanwhile, Hárbarth?”
²¹ Cf. Vaf. 16. In the original, only ‘the river’. Svárang’s sons are the giants.
30
Hárbarth said:
“In the East was I, in my arms I held
the white-armed maiden with wheedling words,
gladdened the gold-dight one till she gave me her love.”
31
Thór said:
“Good was then the wench to thee!”
32
Hárbarth said:
“Of thy help then had I great need, to hold fast the white-armed maiden.”
33
Thór said:
“I would have given it gladly, if on the ground I had been.”
34
Hárbarth said:
“And I would trust thee, if thou hadst not betrayed me.”
35
Thór said:
“No heel-biter am I, like an old hide-shoe in spring!”
36
Hárbarth said:
“What didst thou meanwhile, Thór?”
37
Thór said:
“Against berserk women²² I warred on Hlésey;
with wickedness they bewitched all men.”
²² A berserk (literally ‘bear-skin’) is a person who is supposed to be able to change himself at will into a bear; then, more generally, a fierce warrior.—The reference to their wives on the island of Hlésey (the sea-god Hlér’s Island in the middle of the Kattegat) seems to point to sea goddesses (cf. 39) whose iron clubs are the breakers on the shore.
38
Hárbarth said:
“’Twas unworthy of thee to war on women.”
39
Thór said:
“She-wolves were they, not women, indeed;
they shook my ship which was shored on land,
threatened me with iron clubs, and drove off Thialfi.²³
What didst thou meanwhile, Hárbarth?”
²³ Thór’s servitor.
40
Hárbarth said:
“On the harrying was I which was hither made,
raising the war-flag and reddening spears.”
41
Thór said:
“To my mind thou callest that thou camest to war on us.”
42
Hárbarth said:
“I shall make that up with a mickle ring,
as daysmen may deem in dooming between us.”²⁴
²⁴ “Hárbarth has done harm to Thór by disturbing the work of the farmers” (Gering). Now, Hárbarth offers a ring in composition. Just in what lies the gibe referred to in 43 is not clear at all.
43
Thór said:
“Whence hast thou these haughty words;
for haughtier ones heard I never.”
44
Hárbarth said:
“My words I have from wights so old
who dwell in the hows-of-the-home.”²⁵
²⁵ The ‘home’ is the world of men, the hows-of-the-home, hence, the graves. Óthin gathers wisdom from the dead, cf. Hóv. 158. The force of this remark too escapes us.
45
Thór said:
“A good name givest thou to the graves, indeed,
when thou callest them hows-of-the-home!”
46
Hárbarth said:
“Thus think I of such things.”
47
Thór said:
“Thy glibness of tongue I would gag full soon,
so soon as I wade o’er the water;
than the wolf louder I ween thou wouldst howl,
if the hammer struck thy head.”
48
Hárbarth said:
“With Sif²⁶ some one sleeps in her bower;
thy strength thou shouldst stake against his!”
²⁶ ‘Sib, kin’, Thór’s wife. Cf. Lok. 54.
49
Thór said:
“With wicked words sayst thou what worst would seem to me;
but, craven knave, I know that thou liest.”
50
Hárbarth said:
“No lie I tell thee, full late art thou now;
far hadst thou been had I ferried thee over.”
51
Thór said:
“Cowardly Hárbarth, thou hast held me here over-long.”
52
Hárbarth said:
“Never had I thought that Thór would brook a ferryman to fleer at him.”
53
Thór said:
“Now give heed to my words and row hither thy boat;
let mocking be and fetch Magni’s father over.”
54
Hárbarth said:
“Get thee from the firth! I shall not ferry thee over.”
55
Thór said:
“Then show me the way, since thou wilt not ferry me over the firth.”
56
Hárbarth said:
“’Tis not long to show, all the longer to fare:
a while to the stock, and a while to the stone:
then take thy way to the left till to Verland²⁷ thou comest.
Will Fiorgyn there meet Thór her son,
and show her kinsman the road, how he may come to Óthin.”
²⁷ ‘Land of Men’, where the earth goddess Fiorgyn will show him the way to Valholl. Óthin is, of course, sending Thór on a fool’s errand.
57
Thór said:
“Will I get thither to-day?”
58
Hárbarth said:
“With hard work thou wilt
get thither with setting sun.”
59
Thór said:
“Scant now be our speech, since thou but scoffest at me;
my might thou shalt feel if we meet again.”
60
Hárbarth said:
“Go now where all trolls may take thee!”
III
Introductory note
The two main divinities of the North are here made to confront each other in a senna (or flyting) and a mannjafnaðr (or matching of men against one another with respect to accomplishments and prowess): Óthin (Hárbarth), the god of the toil-abhorring, restless viking-warlike, cruel, amative, haughty; and Thór, the good-natured, mighty-thewed, and impetuous, but somewhat simple, god of the yeoman. In keeping with their characters, the exploits boasted of are, with Óthin, gallant adventures with giantesses whose spouses or fathers he overmasters by strength or cunning, and warfare for its own sake; with Thór, rather monotonously, the slaying of the giant-brood, to make the earth habitable for men.
We do not long remain in doubt where lie the sympathies of the poet: in the battle of words, from first to last, Thór loses out when his slow wits are pitted against the superior irony and smooth readiness of speech of the god of runic wisdom. Also, Thór’s unquestionably useful activities are made to appear a bit prosy, and his plight after arduous combats a bit ridiculous, when compared with the more knightly pursuits and bearing of Óthin. The laughs are always on Óthin’s side, especially when we consider that the meaning of a number of the insulting flings which so incense Thór completely eludes us.
For a not too squeamish taste the effect, though a little burlesque, is sprightly and entertaining —which was probably the aim of the gifted improviser.
The lay is notable among the poems of the Edda for the absence of any recognizable verse scheme. For all we know, it was conceived in the main as we now have it: there are absolutely no reliable criteria as to omissions or interpolations. The text is preserved completely in Cod. Reg., whereas Cod. Arn. contains only the latter part of it, from stanza 19 to the end. It is generally assumed that the poem belongs to about the Tenth Century and was composed in Norway; mainly, because the opposition between nobility and yeomanry which is apparent in it never existed in Iceland.
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