This is Part Four of Book One of Legends of the Ring; like the Heroic ones it has been translated by Patricia Terry. I read it today.
“The mythological poems feature all the well-known Norse gods: Odin [often disguised, as for example a ferryman in the Lay of Harbard.], Fridge, Frey and Freyja, Thor, Loki and the fair god Balder. Giants and dwarfs have their share too. Sometimes the poems tell genuine stories about these characters. Both the ‘Lay of Thrym’ and the ‘Lay of Hymir’ are comic tales involving Thor, and the ‘Lay of Skirmir’ succeeds as a tale of romance.
“….knowledge is at the hub of the majority of these poems…..[which] convey knowledge of places, people, and events throughout the cosmos. They act as guides to the beginning of the universe, and its end, and contain the names and doings of all the major players on its many worlds.
“As with the heroic poems, much of the poetry takes the form of speech. Gods, giants and dwarfs, in turn act as the poems’ mouthpiece, climaxing in the great cosmic vision of the vala or sybil. Consequently knowledge, too, comes in spoken form: sometimes in monologue, more often in dialogue, principally in question-and-answer exchanges.” (Magee)
The first set of these poems is entitled WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE.
‘The High One’ who offers the opening monologues ‘Sayings’ and the ‘Lay of Lloddfafnir’ is Odin, who, disguised as Gagnrad enters into a full dialogue with the giant Vafthrudnir in that eponymous lay. The advice given in the first of these reflects those given by Snorri, for example “if a man takes with him a mind full of sense/ he can carry nothing better;/ nothing is worse to carrot your way/ than a head heavy with beer.” The repetition of the first lines of a string of these verses is a common element in these lays. “Don’t stay for ever when you visit friends,/ know when it’s time to leave;/ love turns to loathing if you sit too long/ on someone else’s bench.” contains the now familiar penchant for alliteration. There are some nice similes in this verse: “Thus you’ll find the love of a faithless woman:/ like a smooth shod horse on slippery ice – / a sprightly two-year-old not yet trained,/ or sailing with no rudder in a frantic storm/ or a lame man on an icy hill running after reindeer.”
Then we have COMEDY AND INSULT.
“The Eddic interpretation of comedy is many-faceted: incongruous, preposterous, ridiculous; sometimes salacious, often insulting, and occasionally spiteful or downright cruel.”
In ‘The Lay of Thrym’ “Thunder-weilding Thor woke in a rage – / someone had made off with his mighty hammer;/ his hair stood upright, his beard shook with wrath,/ wild for his weapon the god groped around” (Again the alliteration).
The final selection represents QUEST AND PROPHESY.
This closes with ‘Sybil’s Prophesy’ quoted in “The Prose Edda”, describing the creation of the cosmos, its disastrous destruction by fire and tempest, and its ultimate hope of regeneration.
These two of Simon Brett’s engravings are relevant to this last section.
This evening, from tables in front of the TV while watching the Women’s rugby sevens Olympic match between Australia and Great Britain; the first round Olympic tennis doubles match between Britain’s Andy Murray and Dan Evans and Japan’s Taro Daniel and Kei Nishikori; followed by highlights of the third day of the third cricket test match between England and West Indies, we dined on roast pork, brambly apple sauce, Yorkshire pudding, boiled new potatoes, cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, broccoli and meaty gravy cooked perfectly by the Culinary Queen, with which I drank Bajoz Tempranillo 2022.
