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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 28

I. — The home-Bringing of the hammer. — The Thrymsquidha

I.

The home-Bringing of the hammer.

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The Thrymsquidha.

The "Thrymsquidha" is one of the poems of the Norse "Elder Edda," which is so named to distinguish it from the "Younger," or "Prose Edda," a work of much later date. These old Norse Eddas contain the whole mythological system of the Norse folk in the pre-Christian times. The Elder or Poetic Edda, sometimes called also, "Sæmund's Edda," is a compilation of poems of very great antiquity, * which were first collected into a canon of Norse Scripture by the priest Sæmund, in Iceland, about 1100. Of these lays of the Elder Edda, one part relates the famous tale of the Niflung, or Nibelungen—that story of love and hate which has been handed down through long centuries, in every branch of the Teutonic race, and of which a cycle of ballads has been collected in the Faroe Isles, and published in our own day. The other division of the Edda contains the probably more ancient lays, relating to the gods, to their deeds and transactions with men.

* Prior at least to the days of Harald Harfàgrà, in the ninth century. P. E. Müller, Sagabib II., 129 et seq.

Færoiske Qvædher (Lyngby). Randus, 1822. Sigurdhr Qvædher (Hainmershaimb). Copenhagen, 1851. Færoiske Kvædher Ib. Ib., 1855.

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The "Thrymsquidha," or the "Home-bringing of the Hammer," is one of these lays : a most ancient song doubt-less—so old indeed, that it is difficult to conjecture within some hundreds of years what its true age may be. This is certain, that more than seven hundred years ago it was taken down from oral recitation, and put on record by Sæmund as being then one of the ancient sacred poems of his race. It is also certain that, a century before Sæmund's time, the "Biarkamal"* (another of the Eddaic songs preserved by him) was then a popular song of the Norsemen, and familiarly known among them, since we find the men of King Olaf singing it before the great battle of Stikkle-stad, where the king was slain. The Sagaman expressly calls it "the old Biarkamal."

From internal evidence, there is every reason to allow, an age equally great—if not greater—to the "Thrymsquidha" as to the "Biarkamal;" and thus we have a thousand years at least as the probable age of this lay. Many northern scholars are, however, of opinion that the "Thrymsquidha" is the oldest of all the Eddaic lays, older

* "Welches vor der Schlacht hei Stiklestad 1030 als ein alter lied gesungen wurde, so dass mann es wenigstens in den Anfang des 9th Jahrhundert zurücksetzen muss. Dietrich Alt. Nord. Leseb. Introd. 21.

"hann qvâdh Biarkamal hinn fornu." Heimskringla Saga VII., Saga of Olaf the Saint, chap. 219. "He began to sing the old Biarkamal." Laing's Trans. Heimsk.

"älter als die grösseren Zusammenfassungen vom Lehen und Schicksal der Götter in ihrer Verflechtung in das Schicksal der Welt was der Inhalt der Völuspa ist und—deren erstere nicht under das 8th Jahr, herabzusetzen ist." Dietrich Alt. Nord. Leseb. 21.

page 11 even than the venerable and mystic Völuspa, the sacrosanct hymn of our forefathers, which sings in solemn prophetic manner of the beginning of the universe, of the gods, and of men, and of the relations between them, and of the end of all things which has to come—that Twilight of the Gods when the present earth is to perish in one great conflagration, but after which, says the inspired seer:—

"A hall I see standing
Fairer than the sun,
With its gleaming golden roof
Aloft in Heaven;
There shall men of worth
Abide for ever,
And bliss enjoy
Through endless ages." *

The "Thrymsquidha" is given here in the Old Norse text, together with a tolerably close English translation. As in Norse poetry rhyme was not the essential thing that it is in our modern verse, rhythm and alliteration of an elaborate kind supplied its place. In the present English version, both these requisites have been supplied wherever practicable, as a comparison will show.

*

Sal sêr hon standa
S⊚lo fagra,
gulli thanktan
a gimli;
Thar skolo dyggvar
dr⊚ttir byggja,
ok um aldrdaga
yndis niota.

Elder Edda, Völuspa, st. 57.

In Old Norse there were two characters to respresnt "th"—one for the soft, and the other for the hard sound of the letter. In the present version the English "dh" stands for the one, and "th" for the other. It may be remarked that this Norse peculiarity distinguishes the present dialect of the Shetland people, who do not pronounce the English "th."

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In order to elucidate the text in the best way, the explanatory notes appended are chiefly taken from the Prose Edda, * and are literally the sense of the original. This Prose or "Younger Edda," compiled by Snorro Sturleson (born A.D. 1178), is the authoritative exposition of the old Norse Odinic creed, a sort of Confession of Faith or Larger Catechism of the Norse religion as it flourished before the advent of Christianity in the North—before King Olaf Tryggveson, and other Defenders of the Faith, converted Norway and its dependencies of Orkney and Shetland from the worship of Odin and the Æsir to that of "Christ Maryson," as the Norsemen in their homely way named our Lord.

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* The enumeration of chapters follows the order of Rask's Edition (Snorra Edda ed. Rask Hafn. 1794.)

"at allir menn skyldo kristnaz lâta, ok trûa â einn gudh Krist Marioson." Hakon the Good's Saga, cap. 17.