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SKÁLDSKAPARMÁL
THE POESY OF SKALDS1
I.
A certain man was named Ægir,
or Hlér. He dwelt on the island which is now called Hlér's Isle,2 and was deeply versed in black magic. He took his way to Asgard, but the Æsir
had foreknowledge of his journey; he was received with good cheer, and yet
many things were done by deceit, with eye-illusions. And at evening, when it was
time for drinking, Odin had swords brought into the hall, so bright that light
radiated from them: and other illumination was not used while they sat at drinking.
Then the Æsir came in to their banquet, and in the high-seats sat them
down those twelve Æsir who were appointed to be judges; these were their
names: Thor, Njördr, Freyr, Týr, Heimdallr, Bragi, Vídarr,
Váli, Ullr, Hœnir, Forseti, Loki; and in like manner the Asynjur:
Frigg, Freyja, Gefjun, Idunn, Gerdr, Sigyn, Fulla, Nanna. It seemed glorious
to Ægir to look about him in the hall: the wain-scottings there were all
hung with fair shields; there was also stinging mead, copiously quaffed. The
man seated next to Ægir was Bragi, and they took part together in drinking
and in converse: Bragi told Ægir of many things which had come to pass
among the Æsir.
He began the story at the point where three of the Æsir,
Odin and Loki and Hoenir, departed from home and were wandering over mountains
and wastes, and food was hard to find. But when they came down into a certain
dale, they saw a herd of oxen, took one ox, and set about cooking it. Now when
they thought that it must be cooked, they broke up the fire, and it was not
cooked. After a while had passed, they having scattered the fire a [90] second
time, and it was not cooked, they took counsel together, asking each other
what it might mean. Then they heard a voice speaking in the oak up above them,
declaring that he who sat there confessed he had caused the lack of virtue
in the fire. They looked thither, and there sat an eagle; and it was no small
one. Then the eagle said: “If ye are willing to give me my fill of the ox, then
it will cook in the fire.” They assented to this. Then he let himself
float down from the tree and alighted by the fire, and forthwith at the very
first took unto himself the two hams of the ox, and both shoulders. Then Loki
was angered, snatched up a great pole, brandished it with all his strength,
and drove it at the eagle's body. The eagle plunged violently at the blow and
flew up, so that the pole was fast to the eagle's back, and Loki's hands to
the other end of the pole. The eagle flew at such a height that Loki's feet
down below knocked against stones and rock-heaps and trees, and he thought
his arms would be torn from his shoulders. He cried aloud, entreating the eagle
urgently for peace; but the eagle declared that Loki should never be loosed,
unless he would give him his oath to induce Idunn to come out of Asgard with
her apples. Loki assented, and being straightway loosed, went to his companions;
nor for that time are any more things reported concerning their journey, until
they had come home.
But at the appointed time Loki lured Idunn out of Ásgard
into a certain wood, saying that he had found such apples as would seem to
her of great virtue, and prayed that she would have her apples with her and
compare them with these. Then Thjazi the giant came there in his eagle's plumage
and took Idunn and flew away with her, off into Thrymheimr to his abode. [91]
But the Æsir became straitened at the disappearance of
Idunn, and speedily they became hoary and old. Then those Æsir took counsel
together, and each asked the other what had last been known of Idunn; and the
last that had been seen was that she had gone out of Asgard with Loki. Thereupon
Loki was seized and brought to the Thing, and was threatened with death, or
tortures; when he had become well frightened, he declared that he would seek
after Idunn in Jötunheim,
if Freyja would lend him the hawk's plumage which she possessed. And when he
got the hawk's plumage, be flew north into Jötunheim, and came on a certain
day to the home of Thjazi the giant. Thjazi had rowed out to sea, but Idunn
was at home alone: Loki turned her into the shape of a nut and grasped her
in his claws and flew his utmost.
Now when Thjazi came home and missed Idunn, he took his eagle's
plumage and flew after Loki, making a mighty rush of sound with his wings in
his flight. But when the Æsir saw how the hawk flew with the nut, and where the eagle was flying,
they went out below Ásgard and bore burdens of plane-shavings thither.
As soon as the hawk flew into the citadel, he swooped down close by the castle-wall;
then the Æsir struck fire to the plane-shavings. But the eagle could not
stop himself when he missed the hawk: the feathers of the eagle caught fire,
and straightway his flight ceased. Then the Æsir were near at hand and
slew Thjazi the giant within the Gate of the Æsir, and that slaying is
exceeding famous.
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