40 



MYTHOLOGY AND COSMOGONY. 



And Durin next to him ; 

 They two shaped 

 Many man-likenesses 

 In the ground, 



As Durin has told. 1 

 * * * 



It is time to reckon 



Down to Lofar, 



For mankind (Gdnar), 



The Dvergar in Dvalin's host, 2 



Those who went 



From the stone-halls, 



The host of Aurvaugar, 



O r 



To Joruvellir (battle-plains). 



Until out of that host 3 

 To the house 4 

 Came three Asar 

 Mighty and mild ; 

 They found on the ground 

 Ask and Embla, 

 Helpless and fateless 



They had no breath, 

 They had no mind, 

 Neither blood nor motion 

 Nor proper complexion. 

 Odin gave the breath, s 

 Hcenir gave the mind, 

 Lodur gave the blood 

 And befitting hues. 



("Voluspa.) 



Finally the Volva describes the end of the world. 



Eastward sat the old one 



In Jarnvid, 6 



And there bred 



The brood of Fenrir ; 



Of them all 



One becomes 



The destroyer of the sun 



In the shape of a Troll. 



He 7 is fed with the lives 

 Of death-fated men ; 

 He reddens the seat of the gods 

 With red blood ; 



The sunshine becomes black 

 After the summers, 

 And all weather woe-begonc. 

 Know ye all up to this and onward ? 



The herdsman of the Jotun woman, 



The glad Egdir, 



Sat there on a mound 



And struck a harp, 



A bright-red cock, 



Called Fjalar, 



Crowed near him 



In the bird- wood. 



1 The five stanzas (Nos. 11, 12, 13, 

 15, 16) omitted give a long list of names 

 of Dvergar, among them those of Nyi, 

 the growing moon; Nidi, the waning 

 moon ; Nordri, the north, &c.; Althjof, 

 all-thief; Dvalin. the delayer, &c., &c. 



2 The Dvergar clau of Dvalin, who is 

 not mentioned before, seems to have been 

 the highest among all the Dvergar. 



From Alvismal we may infer that the 

 Dvergar were related to theThursar. 



1 There seems to be something missing 

 between the stanzas 16 and 17, unless 

 the poet means the host of the Dvergar, 

 who were under the three above-named 

 chiefs. 



4 It seems that the house in which 

 Ask and Embla were to live was in exist- 

 already. Ask means ash-tree, like 



Ygydrasil ; Emhla only occurs here in the 

 Voluspa, and it is most difficult conse- 

 quently to give a meaning to it; the 

 elm-tree is called aim, and perhaps is 

 here meant to be in contrast to the ash. 



5 Odin, Hosnir, and Lodur gave them 

 life. Hoanir is mentioned iu the later 

 Edda. Lodur is only mentioned in the 

 beginning of Heimskringla. 



6 Jarnvid, or iron forest ; the word is 

 only found here and in the Later Edda. 

 The old one means a Jotun woman, 

 Angrboda, by whom Loki begat the 

 Fenrir wolf ( : Later Edda,' c. 34). 



' The son of Fenrir. According to 

 the prose Edda Mdnai/arm is the name of 

 the son of the Fenrir wolf who swal- 

 lowed the moon. See Gyh'aginning, c. 12. 



