Prose Edda - Brodeur Trans.
Skáldskaparmál
their hosts. Then Hedinn called to Högni his father-in-law, offering him reconciliation and much gold in compensation. But Högni answered: 'Thou hast made this offer over-late, if thou wouldst make peace: for now I have drawn Dáinsleif, which the dwarves made, and which must cause a man's death every time it is bared, nor ever fails in its stroke; moreover, the wound heals not if one be scratched with it.' Then said Hedinn: 'Thou dost boast in the sword, but not in the victory; I call any sword good which is faithful to its lord.' Then they began that famous battle which is called the Hjadnings' Strife, and they fought all that day, but at evening the kings went to their ships. Now Hildr went to the slain by night, and with magic quickened all those that were dead. The next day the kings went to the battlefield and fought, and so did all those that had fallen on the day before. So the fight went one day after the other: all who fell, and all those weapons which lay on the field, and the shields also, were turned to stone; but when day dawned, up rose all the dead men and fought, and all weapons were renewed. It is said in songs that in this fashion the Hjadnings shall continue unto the Weird of the Gods. Bragi the Skald composed verses after this tale in Ragnarr Lodbrók's Song of Praise:
And the beloved Maiden
Of the veins' blood-letting
Purposed to bring, for wrath's sake,
The bow-storm to her father:
When the ring-wearing lady,
The woman full of evil,
Bore the neck-ring of War-Doom
To the Battler of the Wind's Steeds.
190
That gory Wound-Amender1. See page 161.
To the glorious Monarch offered
The necklace not for fear's sake,
At the mote of fatal weapons:
Ever as restraining battle
She seemed, although she goaded
Warriors to walk the death-road
With the ravening Wolf's dire Sister.
The Prince of Folk, the Land-God,
Let not the fight, wolf-gladdening,
Halt, nor slaughter on the sands cease,-
Hate, deadly, swelled in Högni,
When the stern Lords of Sword-Din
Sought Hedinn with stern weapons,
Rather than receive
The necklet-rings of Hildr.
And that baleful Witch of Women,
Wasting the fruits of victory,
Took governance on the island
O'er the axe, the Birnie's Ruin;
All the Ship-King's war-host
Went wrathful 'neath the firm shields
Of Hjarrandi, swift-marching
From Reifnir's fleet sea-horses.
On the fair shield of Svölnir
One may perceive the onslaught;
Ragnarr (1) gave me the Ship-Moon,
With many tales marked on it.
191
Battle is called Storm of Odin, as is recorded above; so sang Víga-Glúmr:
I cleared my way aforetimeHere battle is called Storm of Vidrir, and the sword is the Wand of Battle; men are Staves of the Sword. Here, then, both battle and weapons are used to make metaphors for man. It is called 'inlaying,' when one writes thus.
Like earls to lands; the word went
Of this among the Storm-Staves,
The men of Vidrir's Sword-Wand.
"The shield is the Land of Weapons, and weapons are Hail or Rain of that land, if one employs figures of later coinage.
L. "How should the ship be periphrased? Call it Horse or Deer or Snowshoe of the Sea-King, or of Ship's Rigging, or of Storm. Steed of the Billow, as Hornklofi sang:
The Counsel-Stern DestroyerGeitir's Steed, as Erringar-Steinn sang:
Of the pale Steed of the Billow
When full young let the ships' prows
Press on the sea at flood-tide.
But though to the skald all people
This strife from the south are telling,
We shall yet load Geitir's Sea-Steed
With stone; we voyage gladly.
192
Sveidi's Reindeer:
O Son of Sveinn strife-valiant,So sang Hallvardr. Here the ship is also called Deer of the
Thou comest with Sveidi's Reindeer,
Long of seam, on the Seat of Sölsi;
The Sound-Deer from land glided.
Sound; and the Sea is called Sölsi's Seat.
Thus sang Thórdr Sjáreksson:
The swift Steed of the GunwaleHere the ship is called Steed of the Gunwale; and the sea is Gylfi's Land; the sea is also called Gull's Wake. The ship is called Horse, and further, Horse of the Leek: for 'leek' means 'mast.'
Around Sigg veered from northward,
The gust shoved GylfI's Stream's Mirth,
The Gull's Wake-Horse, to southward
Of Aumar, laying fleetly
Both Körmt and Agdir's coastline
Along the stern; by Listi
The Leek's Steed lightly bounded.
And again, as Marktis sang:
The Stream's Winterling waded
Stoutly the Firth-Snake's Snow-Heaps;
The Tusker of the Mast-Head
Leaped o'er the Whale's spumed House-Tops;
The Bear of the Flood strode forward
On the ancient paths of sea-ships;
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