The poet of Voluspd has many skills, but perhaps his

greatest is his mastery of enigma. One mystery that is as

yet unsolved is that of the legend behind stanzas 25 and
26:

J>a gengo regin oil Then the deities went all

a rokst6la, to the thrones of destiny,
ginnheilog goi5, sacrosanct gods,
ok urn pat grettuz - and concerned themselves about
this-
hverr hefai lopt alt who ha4 tainte<!_~
Jrevi blandit all the air with ruin :
· dla rett jotuns and given to the gtant-race
Ol'ls mey getna. Oi5r's girl?

J.>6rr eirm par va, C(?J_Sh.aJ ?_ J>6rr alone struck there,

cE.~~Mi·~-. 'Gwone!¥ with fury -
harm sjaldan sitr, he seldom rests
er harm slfkt urn fregn. when he hears such a thing!
A gengoz eiaar, The oaths were violated,
orll ok sreri, the vows and pledges,
mal oll meginlig, all the powerful words
er a mellal foro. that passed between them 1•

This allusion to the giving of OClr's girl, that is, the goddess
Freyja, to the giant-race follows immediately after the four
stanzas which relate to ' the first war in the world ' -
folkvig fyrst i heiwi. This was a conflict between two
breeds of deity, the Vanir, of whom Freyja was one, and
)

t The numbering of stanzas follows that in Edda. Die Lieder des

Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmiilern. Edited by G. NECKEL,
3rd edition revised by H. K.uhn, 1952. In Voluspd 25/5 hverr (Hauks-
b6k, Snorra Edda) is here adopted in place of hverir (Codex Regius),
but this change is not essential to the present argument.
Vl
58

the !Esir, whose~s P6rr, the hammer-wielding

giant-killer. The war of the gods began - if we may judge
from the allusive flashes of narrative by which the poet
of Voluspd recalls the story - with the !Esir's ineffectual
attempt to stab and burn to death a female being, whom
the poet names as Gullveig. The two elements of her name
embrace notion s commonly associated wit h the Vanir,{' gL~l /
(gold), a symbol for the life-giving sun, prosperity, fecun -
ity, and veig (power , intoxicating drink), evoking the
potent sorcery of the Vanir, seilJr, with its orgiastic rites
and trances . The indestructible GullveigJ thrice rebor'if from
her triple burning, is transmuted by this alchemy into a
witch, HeiOr (Bright One), who passes into human society,
seducing worshippers away from the JEsir b y her sibyll~-.? Sea_, ,
arts, winning the love of ' the evil woman ' d! var non -\J
a11gan illrar bruoar. The legend of Gullveig-Heior is that of
C" the archetypal seiokona- the unburnable witch, the priest-
ess and prophetess : a hypostasis of the goddess Freyja
herself. When the st'al emate war closes w1th a truce (as
we learn from Snorri), the two breeds of god unite in a
single divine society 1 .
In stanzas 21 and 22 the poet throws into glittering
relief the vitality and seductive sorceries of the lady of the
Vanir, whom the JEsir repudiate. Their hostility towards
this ' darling of the evil woman ' has a hint of moral disap-
proval. But when, in stanzas 25 and 26 , they arc about to
lose her, she appears tender and innocent, a girl , mey,
who - all would know the legend - weeps tears of gold
as she seeks for her lost husband , Oor 3 . Now she has be-
come so necessary to the life of the gods that they dare not
contemplate her loss . To evade her loss they break their
most solemn oaths. From this moment in the poem the

l Heimskrin gla I, Yr1 glinga Saga eh. 4, l slenz k Fonzrit XXVI,

1941.
3 Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Edited by F. J6NssoN, 1931 , Gylfagin-
ning 38. All references to the Snorra Edda will be to the pages of
this edition.
 VOLUSPA ' AND SATIRIC TRADITTON 59

pressure of disaster and ill-omen is not lifted until after

the destruction of the world at Ragnarok.
As many scholars have pointed out 4 , a moral pattern-
ing is here clearly discernible. The poet's emphasis on the
seriousness of the gods ' violation of their oaths is unmis-
takeable- eiom·, ora, sreri, mal all meginlig. Troth-breaking
brings its own retribution, as the valkyrie Sigrdrifa warns
young Siguror:

Grimmar limar [MS simar] Bitter branches

ganga at trygorofi. grow to troth-breaking.
:Armr er(vara vargr.) Vile is the ravener of vows.
(Sigrdrifumdl 23)

The poet of V oluspd., however, is clearly not imposing a ~~ f.iS'd-

single, transparent moral pattern upon his poem; he s~ s; ~.e. (S
rather to be demonstrating a moral function of time. He 1/ '/} //
shows the events in the history of the gods not as a sequence I
of reprehensible acts for which they deserve their decline, ~~
~ut as a ~tartling , unexpe~ted, only half-understood s~ccess- ~ rJ-tt
wn of Circumstances wh1ch force upon them unavoidable 0°
choices, involve them inextricably in compromise and error.
The hermetic golden world of the !Esir at the start of time
. /. is constantly invaded , the gods are in a perpetual dilemma.
1/: So, in stanzas 21 to 26, the poet moves logically from the

t P( necessity forced on the gods of accepting the Vanir and

~ 1"111 (" the Van ad is Freyja, within their community, to the price
tyz 1'/ / the a to kee that sacred witch among them, the break-
--------,ing of their oaths. He as se ected certain legends of the
gods to form an evolutionary sequence, and he uses only
those aspects of the legends he has chosen which will carry
his theme.
For an understanding of V oluspd., therefore, we need to
know no more about the legend behind stanzas 25 and 26

4 For example, S . NORDAL, Voluspd, 2nd edition, 1952, 194 ff.; E.

MOGK, Zur Gigantomachie der Voluspd, « FF Communications» 58,
1925, 6 f.; J. DE VRIES, Die Voluspd, « Germanisch-romanische Monats-
schrift, XXIV, 1936, 9 f .; d . M. OLAFSSON, Voluspd Konungsb6kar,
« Landsb6kasafn !slands. Arb6k >> 1965, 103, 139.
 Vl

60

than the poet tells us. If we did not have Gylfaginning we

might ponder no more on the matter. Snorri, however,
tells a complete and detailed story, which he relates speci-
fically to stanzas 25 and 26 of V oluspd 5 ; he cites these stan-
zas at the end of his account as if to corroborate it, but so

I
awkardly do they fit his narrative that many scholars have
. aoubted that the poet of Voluspd was inaeed referrin~o
the same leger1d. Snorri's story is patently a hybrid, a humor-
ous folkt(;lle (with widespread analogues) placed in a my-
thological context (told of the gods, not of men). On this
account, some scholars argue that it cannot be a 'true
myth', but must be a 'late' fabrication not in existence be-
fore V oluspd. This is not the place to examine all the mis-
conceptions underlying these arguments; I would only sug-
gest that, even if we date Voluspd as early as the tenth cen-
tury, there is ample evidence of the synthesizing ~~_e_rs
~f the \:'ikil).g.,,?.oets ~th;;rt, timL~IHL2.f.)h~j.Qcul~.rity_~~h
which they sometimes . treated their ..
gods; the creation of
d.'1f~~~-:.>a'~..o;~.. .., . ..,,.,"'"'"""'~'""" ' ~"'-~Y4":;'11 ..1o<;l ..,._." ._ ...... ,;."jo.

a hybrid 'myth' such as Snorri tells need be dated no later

than the earliest Norse poets 6 •
The tale is told in Gylfaginning in order to explain the
remarkable qualities of Ooinn's ho S · nir. A visiting
m er of ers to build a stone fortress for the JEsir in three
seasons, for a fee consisting of!the suil\,[the moog and~
goddess Freyjaj The price is, of course, outrageous, but the
gods explicitly accept it ( ... hann skyldi eignaz pat er hann

s In stanza 26 in Snorri's text lines S-8 precede 1-4. I see no

reason to prefer that ordering. It does not seem to have influenced
Snorri's rendering of the story (though it could have been a change
he made himself). See Gylfaginning 45-7.
6 For a full discussion and bibliography of the folktale element
in Snorri's story, see the learned article of J. HARRIS, The Master-
builder Tale in Snorri's 'Edda' and Two Sagas, « Arkiv for nordisk
F\lologr » XC!, 1977, 66-101. For the study of Voluspd the value of
the article is lessened by a certain confusion as to the nature ~f
mythological stories in Norse (see the use of the terms ' living
myth', 'a genuine ... myth', 'an article ... of faith - presumably the
significance of a «myth»' on page 71, and the assumption of a
determinate 'North Germanic mythopoeic age' on page 74).

\
 •
'VOLUSPA ' AND SATIRIC TRADITION 61

mcelti til), at the same time turning what the builder had
proposed as a straightforward business contract into, a
wager. They challenge him to carry out his proposal on
seemingly impossible terms: he must complete the work in

n
ne season and without any man;s help. The builder asks 'if
he may have the help of his stallion. At Loki's suggestion,
he lEsir accede to this and then watch with consternation
how much labour the stallion can perform. At this point
Snorri emphasizes that the bargain with the builder was
sealed with powerful oaths and witnesses, because 'giants,....
did not feel themselves safe among the lEsir if P6rr should
come home. When only three days remain for the com-
pletion of the work - and it is evident that the work will
indeed be done in time - the gods ask themselves who was
to blame for this desperate situation, for marryin Fre ja ;;i:P lbpfalr
~(!)/,·
..... off ' into Giant-Land ' and oilin the sk y giving away
sun and moon 'to the giants'. The gods turn on Loki as t e
culprit and menace him till he swears oath's to preve~t the
bl"~~j
builder from winning his reward.' That night at his toil the
stallion is seduced by a filrtatious mare and off he goes with
ner into the forest and stays there all night. The builder's
work cannot now be finished on time. He breaks into' giant-
- z,
fury' (fotunm6or), and at this the lEsir see 'for certain'
'that they are dealing with a hill-giant. Brushing aside their
oaths -.)Jd varo eigi pyrmt eiounum - they summon P6rr
to dispatch him. This P6rr swiftly does, giving him as pay-
ment not the sun and moon but a smashed skull. Loki is
later delivered of an eight-legged foal, who becomes Ooinn's
csplendid steed.
When we read this sprightly comedy it is very difficult
to understand how the poet of V oluspd could treat such a
story so seriously and sound such a lugubrious note at its
happy ending. He emphasizes only the ;minous aspects of
the legend, the threatened ruin of the h~avens __:_ which. is
avoided - and the shattered oaths. De Vries expressed his
scholarly dissatisfaction with this most pointedly 7 : ' ... the

7 J. DE VRIES, The Problem of Loki, << FF Communications, 110,

1933, 73f.
62

stanza of Voluspa does not tally with the tale of the giant-
builder. When I read the whole context, beginning with
stanza 21, I get the impression that after the serious trou-
ble between the Vanir and the JEsir the question of the
giant-builder is indeed too slight a matter to justify such
exceedingly high-flown language as a gengoz eioar, ora ok
sceri, mal oll meginleg er d meoal f6ro. 1'his, however, is
only a quite subjective feeling about the stylistic value of
the expression; I do not wish to use it as an argument. This
is only of importance for the interpretation of Volusp<L.;
as to the tale of Snorri I think no more proofs will be re-
quired [De Vries. refers here to his earlier discussion] for ~
my opinion that the stanzas of the Voluspa do not be~.
to it'.
More recently it has been argued (though without close
examination of the problem of Voluspd) that Snorri him-
self invented the legend he tells of the giant-builder in Gyl-
faginning, combining a current Icelandic folktale with fa-
miliar mythological traditions of the JEsir 8 • I should like
to suggest, however, that with more patient treatment of
the texts we can see that stanzas 25 and 26 of V oluspd and
Snorri's story could be closely related, even derived from
the same source. The same evidence indicates, I think, that
Snorri certainly did not invent the legend he tell;;. I should
'like to demonstrate how such a common source could have,
as a prominent motif, the swearing of oaths - and the
breaking of them - and yet retain its hilarity of tone. Fi-
nally, I should like to indicate, with the help of Lokasenna,
how the oath-breaking of the gods, even in so carefree a
context, could nevertheless be distorted b y the unsmiling
lips of the satirist into a heinous act, a step towards Rag-
narok.
To provide a more soJ..i.d basis for argument than cri-
tics usually allow themselves amid the network of variant
possibilities, I offer an English paraphrase of a hypotheti-
cal poem on the theme of the giant-builder. I have made

8 J. HARRIS, art. cit. 90 ff.

 1
VOLUSPA' AND SATIRIC TRADITION 63

1
this poem ' only as long as is necessary to cover the chief
facts afforded by Snorri and the two stanzas of Voluspd
(though at certain moments Snorri's wording suggests there
may have been more expansive treatment). For stylistic guid·
ance I have kept in mind especially Prymskvioa, Skirnis-
mdl and Rigs l?!:!J.a with their echoing repetitions and speed
in moving from point to point. Of the many possible va-
riants of the vital stanza *11, I offer two oply. I have italic·
ized in Snorri's text the rare instances of phrasing~
might reflect an alliterative original.
" I woul~~p~~ze that . !~.i ~- ~E~.ill ~)L2J2h:',. a .Y:.<?.E.k ing
model, designed to facilitate the discussion of motifs.
-------·~, --....,...,...._-.._,~"""'''-~"'""--"'-~-·-""~~~

Svaoilfarakvioa, or Loki's Horseplay:

* 1 In th~ early ...Q.ay~ l?at var snimma i ondveroa

when the gods had their bygo gollanna, ]:>a er gooin
- ~-- ' dw!tlling, hofou sett l1,LOgaro ok].ert
when.,.Mil;)garor had been Valholl, ):la kom ]Jar smior
-~- ' founded nokkurr --
and Valholl made,
a -builder crune- It was in the fi rst early days of
t~j_he ll;;llls of the ,gods, the sett lement of the gods, when
journeying the gods had founded Miogaror
to Asgaror. ' and made Valholl, that a builder
came

* 2 I will build a_ fortress

1
ok bauo at gera ]:>eim borg a
in three seasons: prim misserum sva g6oa, at
a true and trusty tru ok orugg vreri fyrir berg-
defence for the gods, risum ok hrimpursum, )J6tt
even though hlll-giants peir kremi inn urn Miogaror,
sbould coine invaaing,
and frost-giants, and offered to m ake them a for-
round Miogaror. tress in three seasons, of such
quality that it w ould be trusty
and safe against hill-giants and
frost-giants, should they come in
ro und Miogaror.
• J.

64

* 3 'I will require en hann mrelti ser pat til

as wages kaups, at hann skyldi eignaz
oar's girl [or Freyja] Freyju, ok hafa vildi hann
for my wife, sorok -riian:a:. -·-
and I will have
the sun from the heavens and he stipulated as his wages
and moon from the sky that he should have Freyja as his
as my reward'. wife and h'; wanted to have the
sun and moon.

* 4 The .tEsir assembl~d I> a__geng]L .tEsirnir a tal ok

in debate reau raat~IT.Isinum: ok: -·var·
·a nd pondered ·geri
j;iit-·~ca;;P ·vrirsmurmn..
what counsel they should at hann skyldTe igm\Zliaf"er
follow. ham).' mreltr tli, . . . . . .
' The builder shall have
oar's gl!:l __[g[. _£reyjiJ as Then the JEsir went into confe-
~ -· - reward, rence and discussed their course
the sun , fr.om....the..._~'i!Y.~ns of action, and the contract was
an~ moon from ~sky, agreed with the builder that he
should have what he stipulated,

" 5 ' If he can build ef hann fengi gert borgina a

in a single winter einum vetri, en- hinnfyrsta
a trusty fortress, sumars dag._ef nokk-tm='hiUtr
defence for the gods - vreri _ ~g~r__Al: - borgiriiti:-pa
but, on the first day of skyldi hann af kaupinu, skyl-
summer, di hann af ongum manni ua
if one bit is unfinished, piggja til verksins.
the contract is void -
and no man shall help him '. if he got the fortress made in a
single winter, but, on the first day
of summer, if any part of the
fortress was unfinished he would
lose the contract; and he should
have no help from any man for
the work.
'Vi5LUSPA' AND SATIRIC TRADITION 65
•
* 6 'In a single winter Ok er peir sog<lu bonum pes-
the work shall be done, sa kosti, pa beiddiz hann at
by the first day of summer, peir skyldi lofa ;tJ1a~ hclE'i
or the contract will be void, lio af hesti sinum, er Sva<lil-
if you will allow me fari het,
fh'e'aia~of'my s·t;;_liion,
my Svaoilfari, And when they told him these
and no help from any man'. terms, he begged that they would
allow him to have the assistance
of his stallion, which was called
Svaoilfari

* 7 The JEsir pondered en pvi rea Loki, at pat var til

what counsel they should lagt vio hann.
follow.
Then Loki spoke, and on Loki's advice that was
Laufey's son: granted to him.
' Let us allow him
the aid of his stallion,
of his Sva<lilfari,
and no help from any man'.

* 8 'What pledges do you give (ii) En at kaupi peira varu sterk

me vitni ok morg sreri, fyrir pvf
that the contract will be at jotnum p6tti ekki trygt at
kept, vera mea Asum griaalaust, ef
that you promise me safe- I>6rr kremi heim, en pa var
conduct hann farinn i austrveg at
if I perform my work?' berja troll.
' Oaths we swear,
solemn words and pledges, But to their contract there were
that we shall honour the powerful witnesses and numerous
contract oaths, because it did not seem
and give you safe-conduct'. safe to giants to be among the
IEsir, without promise of sanctua-
ry, if P6rr should come home; at
that time, however, he was away
in the east beating up trolls.
• J.

66

* 9 On the first day of winter (i) Hann t6k til hinn fyrsta ve- ~
the work was begun. trar dag at gera borgina, en
Each night the stallion drew of nretr dr6 hann tTI grJ6fA
huge stones · for the building. hestinum, en pat ]:>6tti asu-
The £sir marvelled num mikit ii-;:Jctr~versu st6r
what labour he bjorg sa hestr dr6, ok hdlfu
accomplished, meira brekvirki geroi he-
half as much again
the horse as the man. ----------
strinrt·en smiorinn.

(In Snorri (i) precedes (ii))

He started on the first day of
winter to make the fortress, and
during the nights he pulled up
stones for his building by means
of his stallion, and it seemed to
the IEsir a great marvel what
huge stones the stallion pulled,
and the stallion was doing twice
as much herculean labour as the
builder.

*10 Rapidly that winter En er a leio vetrinn, ]:>a s6ttiz

the fortress rose up, mjok borgargeroin, ok var
so high and strong hon sva ha ok sterk, at eigi
that no one could storm it. matti a pat leita. En pa er
The fortress had almost iii dagar varu til sumars, pa
reached the gateway var komit mjok at borghlioi.
when three days only
remained before summer. And as the winter passed, the
making of the fortress was pres-
sed on hard, and it was so high
and strong that it could not be
stormed. An when there were
three days to summer, the buil-
ding had come close to the gate-
way of the fortress.
VOLUSPA' AND SATIRIC TRADITION 67

''11 The JEsir assembled (cf. VOiuspa 25)

in debate. I>a settuz gooin a d6mst61~
' Who advised that the air "'"sina ok leitu8u ratla ok spur-
should be tainted with ruin, oi hverr ann.!!n. hverr :Ryj.
[or despoiled] hefi}i raait at gipta Freyju i
the sun taken from the Jotunheima eoa spilla loptinu
heavens ok himninum sva at taka
and moon from the sky, -~-. .N~.l ok f!~,llgl ok gW.
and 6or's girl [or Freya] .j~tnum ...
given away
from Asgar8r? '9. Then the gods seated themselves
on their judgement thrones and
sought counsel, and each asked
the other who had advised mar-
rying Freyja into Giant-Land and
spoiling the air and the heavens
by taking from them the sun and
the moon and giving them to the
giants,

*12 The JEsir at once en pat kom asamt mea 01-

were in agreeme!].t: lum, at pessu mundi raait
'Loki the ruin-master, lfafli,-sii er flestti lli.U"'rrei>r;'
--- ·-----Tinit lrevisi] Tok:1 Laufexjarson,
_,.,.---·~ 'll:i~
Laufey's son,
aavised that the air and it was unanimously agreed
should be tainted with ruin that the one who advised it must
· [or desp~~k4J have been he who gives most of
and oar's girl [or Freyja] the bad advice, Loki Laufeyjar-
~ · .. - - · gi-;en away son,
from Asgarar.

9 The phrases ltzvi blandit and 6os mey could be original in this

context to the poet of VOluspd himself (see below) and should not,
therefore, be rendered in this p<;J,stiche in stanzas 3, 4, 11, 12.
68

'' 13 ' Let us seize him ok kvaCiu hann veroan ills

and make him suffer; dauoa, ef eigi hitti harm rao
he is worthy til, at smiorinn vreri af kau-
of the worst of deaths, pinu, ok veittu Loka atgongu;
unless he can devise
- most disastrous of and they said he was worthy of
counsellors - a foul death if he did not light
a plan to balk on a plan to disqualify the
the builder of his contract '. builder from his contract, and
they offered Loki violence,

''14 Loki the ruin-master en er hann varo hrreddr, pa

was livid with fear. svaroi hann eiOa, . at hann
'Oaths I swear, sky_ldi sv~ !il haga, -a!_ smi-
soi~r_nn wo~<fs -~~q :p~~d_g,es , orinn v~r:L~.f kaupinu, hvat
That I shall devise a plan sem hann kostadj til.
::....._ whatever r t:cos!s:Jlle -
to··balk for certain and when he grew scared, then
· the builder of his ' contract'. he swore oaths that he would de-
vise a means hereby the builder
should be disqualified from his
contract, whatever it might cost
him personally.

*15 That night the stallion drew Ok it sama kveld, er smi-

huge stones for the building. orinn 6k ut eptjr_ grj§.!_i_!J.J!
Out of the forest meo hest~nn Svaoilfara, l>.~
a filly came cantering. hlj6p 6r sk6gi nokkurum
She whinnied to the stallion men: ok at hestinum ok hrein
- the stout ropes broke - vio; en er hestrinn kendi hvat
off he galloped hrossi ~etta var,-pa reddiz
to join her game. haiiiiOk sleit sundr reipin ok
hlj6p til merarinnar,

And that same evening as the

builder drove out to fetch the
stone with his stallion Svaoilfari,
out of a forest a mare cantered
and made for the stallion and
whinnied to him. And when the
stallion recognized what kind of
a horse that was, lte went wild
 Vl •

'VOLUSPA' AND SATIRIC TRADITION 69

and broke apart the ropes and

galloped to the mare,

*16 All that night en hon undan til sk6gar ok

the horses played. smiorinn eptir ok vill taka
All that night hestinn, en pessi hross hlau-
the builder pursued them. pa alia n<ll!., ok dvelz smi8in
When morning came pa n6tt, ok eptir urn daginn
the work was not done. varil ekki sva smi6at, sem
The builder burst fyrr hafoi or5it. Ok pa er
into giant-fury. smiorinn ser, at eigi mun
Iokit veroa verkinu, pa freriz
smiorinn i jotunm6o,

but she ran away from him into

the forest and the smith ran af-
ter and tried to catch the stal-
lion, but these horses gallop the
whole night, and the building-
work was at a standstill that
night, and the day after there
was not as much built as had
been before. And when the buil-
der saw that the task would not
be completed, he broke into
giant-fury,

''17 'Here is a hill-giant en er JE.sirnir sa pat til vfss,

come amongst us, at par var bergrisi kominn,
menacing us pa varo eigi pyrmt eiounum,
with giant-fury. ok kolluou peir a l>6rr,
Let us call for l>6rr
to wield his hammer. but when the !Esir saw for cer-
One does not respect oaths tain that it was a hill-giant who
with the giant-race'. had come there, then no respect
was paid to their oaths, and they
called to P6rr,
Vl

70

*18 I>6rr was not idle ok jafnskj6tt kom hann, ok

when he heard that message, )Jvf nrest f6r a lopt hamar-
began to battle, rinn Mjollnir; gait hann pa
brandished his hammer. smiilar kaupit ok eigi s61
Neither sun nor moon eila tungl, heldr synjaili hann
did he pay him for that bonum at byggva i Jotunhei-
labour, mum ok laust pat it fyrsta
but denied him all dwelling hOgg, er haussinn brotnaili T
in Giant-Land. smlin mola, en .sendi hann
,::zj!!r undir Nit!heim.

and he came as swiftly, and im-

mediately the hammer Mjollnir
was in the air. Then he paid the
price for the building, and it was
not the sun or the moon; instead
he did not allow him to dwell in
Giant-Land, and the first blow he
struck made the skull break up
into tiny particles, and he dispat-
ched him down. below Niflheimr.

*19 Loki meanwhil~ En Loki hafili pa feril haft til

grew round-bellied. Svaililfara at nokkuru siilar
He bore a foal _:_ bar hann fyl; pat var gratt
it had eigh~et! ok haflli viii fcetr, ok er sa
That was Sleipnir, hestr beztr meil goilum ok
Svaililfari's son, monnum.
the noblest of steeds
known in the world. But Loki had had such dealings
with Svaailfari that some while
later he bore a foal; it was grey
and had eight feet, and that horse
is the finest among gods and
among men.

By following Snorri's tale quite closely we can build

up a hypothetical 'poem' which - it soon becomes ap-
parent- is an amalgam of motifs and stylistic conventions
found elsewhere in Norse traditions of the gods. Only the
theme of the giant-builder's bar~ain is unparal~led. To
indicate the extent of the traditional element in Snorri's tale,
'VOLUSPA' AND SATIRIC TRADITION 71

and to provide a basis of reference for later argument,

I set out briefly the motif-analogues I have noted.

1
The motifs in Snorri's myth' of the giant-builder

* 1 The placing of a myth ' in early daY§__' - snimma

i ondveroa bygo gooanna- is found also in Hymiskvioa 1,
Rigspula 1, Voluspd 3 (dr var alda, pat er Ymir bygoi). In
the tale of the giant-builder it is particularly apt since it is
the gods' domestic arrangements in the inchoate world
which ar~ to be completed by the builder's labour.

*3 (i) The coveting of sun and moon is found else-

where in Norse mythology, but usually associated with
wolves, not with giants. It is clearly a motif more appropriate-
to myth than to folk tale. In V afpruonismdl 46 Fenrir the
wolf will destroy the sun; in Grimnismdl 39 tlie sun is fol-
lowed and preceded by two wolves, Skoll and Hati. Snorri
adds that these two wolves will seize the sun and moon. He
goes on to say- without commenting upon the discrepancy
- that the moon will be swallowed by a wolf named Mana-
garmr (Hound of the Moon), whom he identifies with the
1
one of all the offspring of Fenrir ' who will become the
snatcher of the moon (tungls tjugari), according to Voluspd
40 10 • (The poet of Voluspd adds enigmatically that this moon-
1
snatcher will be i trollz hami, in troll's shape': is he deli-
berately evoking an anthropomorphic image here in order
to associate the ultimate snatching of the moon at the end
of the world with the earlier abortive attempt by a giant
to carry it off by guile?)

1o Tjugari (hap. leg.) is commonly interpreted from the context

as 'snatcher' 'remover' and tentatively related to tjuga, 'fork' or
toga, ' to pull'. Tungl is commonly interpreted as 'sun' here by
modern scholars, but not by Snorri (Gylfaginning 18 f.). Since this
article went to press Margaret Clunies-Ross pointed out to me the
significant giant-kenning in P6rsdrdpa 4/2: vargr himintiirgu, 1 wolf
of the h eaven-shield ' (i.e. wolf., pillager, of the sun).
VI
72

*3 (ii) The coveting of Freyja by the giants is found

also in Prymskvioa: the giant Prymr wants her as his bride
\:6ut gets P'6rr disguised as Freyja instead). The analogous
goddess of fruitfulness and youth, Iounn, is coveted and
caught by the giant Pjazi (who so earns the title sn6tar ulfr),
and later rescued by Loki (in HaustlOn_g). We know little
about P6rr's daughter Pruor, but the term ' thief of
, Pruor' for the giant Hrungnir in Ragnarsdrdpa 1/3 sug-
gests that she too was once abducted by a giant. In Snorri's
story of the drunken Hrungnir in Asgaror, the giant boasts
"cthat he will carry off Sif and Freyja to Giant-Land» 11 • The
Norse version of the myth of Hades and Persephone evi-
dently had many variants.

*4, *7, *11 The assembling of the .tEsir to consider

· what action should be taken occurs also in Haustlong 10,
Prymskvioa 14, Baldrs Draumar 1, Hymiskviaa 1 (where
the gods use lottery), and Voluspd 48. A refrain-like repet-
ition of the council-meeting of the gods, such as Snorri's
tale suggests, is found elsewhere only in Voluspd (6, 9, 23,
25. The instance of the motif in 48 ~epresents, I would
Say;""a deliberately reduced version of the refrain, implying
the powerlessness now of the .tEsir' s councils). In the tale
of the giant-builder the repeated council-meetings are an
essential part of the action, required by the repeated modi-
fications of the terms of the bargain, and not only for
the consideration of a dilemma in which the gods find
themselves, as in all the other sources for this motif.

*4 We may note that in Prymskvioa too the gods seem

perfectly content to allow Freyja to be married off to the
giants-(in exchange for the stolen hammer of P6rr:). On
that occasion reyja herself objects in fury. In the giant-
builder tale the gods do not take the t reat to Freyja se-
riously until it is too late to withdraw.

n Skdldskaparmdl 101.
 'VOLUSPA' AND SATIRIC TRADITION 73

*7 Loki's misguided counsel is nowhere exactly pa- •

ralleled. Are we to imagine that he speaks out of delibe-
rate malice, guessing that the stallion is going to win the
contract for the builder? Should we see this advice of his,
for example, as parallel in wickedness to his encouragement
of Hoor to throw the mistletoe at Baldr? The poet of
Voluspd might have wished us to think so if it was indeed
he who introduced the term lcevi into stanza 25 (a possibi-
lity considered below). But if we look at other legends of
Loki's mistakes, we see that it is more common to represent
them as ill-timed actions, such as any person might find
himself guilty of - striking at the great eagle -wno swoo s
down on the ox roasting for the go s Haustlong) , or throw-
ing a stone at a sleepy otter (prose preface to Reginsmdl).
How is Loki to know that the eagle is a giant who will
trap him and force him to betray Iounn-,-m-tlmrthe-o·H~&t:..,_
is the son of a powerful father, who will demand a huge ~ ~
wergild for him which will grow mto a cursed and murder- ~'f~c.)r'
..ous hoard? It is mischievo"7.s curiosit~- ~nd ~a~ ju~gement ( ~' shlf)
that put Loki into Geirri:ior's power, but not mal'evel~
(Skdldskaparmdl 105). It would seem, therefore, more in · ···· -.:--·V
keeping with other comic tales of Loki and the giants that ~ ~rr
we should imagine him giving his advice in the gian.t-build- · ~~
er tale as if he were suddenly inspired ' to voice the spirit
of the meeting'. He speaks first, but it is really what they
-3.re all on the point of thinking. They are, after all, good (1•• • _
sportsmen: the builder has accepted their challenge of a J't)'1Mef'
new time--limit, surely they can accept his request for the ~
stallion's help . So their self-assurance persuades them. Had
the /Esir been truly serious, they would never have con-
templated the builder's offer in the first place, but · this is
slapstick comed);:n.of cautious r eal life. It is characteristic
of such slapstick comedy ( ;;e_-need only think . of ·Lauref .
and Hardy) that the blinkered gods should turn on Loki
as the scapegoat for thdrow~ f~Jiy and· Hick of foresight.

*8 Oaths are sworn and pledges given by gods to

giants in a number of instances. Jn Hdvamdl Ooinn is said
to have sworn a ring-oath to the giants, and to have broken
 /'WILl t{t
Vl

74

it: that was the rice of bringin the mead of poetry [ &'Jr-v li
up into t e world of men 12 • Though the nature o Ooinn's
oath is not made clear, it is plain that his breaking of the
oath is not regarded with horror. For other instances of
pledges given to the giants, we are mainly dependent upon
< rt&.~

t6 ~
Snorri. The giant Hrungnir claims the security of the JEsir's 'f
invitation and Ooinn's safe-conduct (griff), when he is sur-
prised in Asgaror by P6rr - but it is evident that he places
greater hope of safety in the fact that he is unarmed and it
would be shameful for P6rr to attack him (Skaldskapar-
mdll01 f.). Loki swears oaths twice to giants: (i) Pjazi forces
him to swear to bring Iounn within his reach (Skald-
skaparmdl 79; in Haustlong 8-9 oaths are not specified,
though the coercion is clear); (ii) Geirroor forces him to
swear to bring P6rr to his home without his hammer or
~belt of strength (Skaldskaparmdl 106). It is noticeable that
on both occasions Loki punctiliously keeps his oaths to the
giants.

*11, 12 A scene in which the .JEsir wonder in dismay

who is responsible for a disastrous situation and decide
that it is Loki occurs also in Snorri's tale of Iounn: 'The
JEsir met in assembly and asked each other what was last
known of Iounn, and the last seen of her was that she
went out of Asgaror with Loki '. Snorri is here probably
developing the highly condensed text of Haustlong 11. In
Snorri's story of Hrungnir in Asgaror, P6rr asks three
questions in rapid succession- ' hverr pvi rceor ... , hverr sel-
di..., hvi ... skal ... '?-which recall the JEsir's question, hverr
hefoi Pvi rdoit ... , in the tale of the giant-builder. The situa-
tion, however, is quite different , and the answer is not
Loki.

*13 Loki is forced by pain to swear oaths also by the

giants Pjazi and Geirroor (see under *8 above). According
to Snorri, Loki is threatened by the irate JEsir with death

12 Havamdl 107-10.
 J;:;e A ~ '8~9?' 7~ n!J
• .L

1n.¥1 J /wdbtn.A
~ '~USPA' AN&SA~~ ITION
1

75

or torture unless he brings back Iounn. In Haustlong 11

half a stanza is devoted to the words of an angry god
•
telling Loki he will be punished (jnJ. skalt velum veltr) un-
less he restores IOunn.

*14 Oaths are sworn to the JEsir by Loki also in Snor-

ri's tale of Iounn, though this is not stated in Haust!Ong.

*15 Behind the comic escapade of Loki as a mare-

how else could . he be sure of diverting the stallion from
his labour? - lies a very old satiric tradition of obscene
insult. In the first Lay of Helgi Hundingsbani 42, Guomundr
reviles Sinfjotli for being a mare, 'Pu vart bruor Grana';
the same mocking theme appears in the nio against Haraldr
Gormsson in Heimskringla 13 • · --

*16 The terJ/jotunm6orfror the fury of the disappoin-

ted builder has its analogues in verse only in the rage of the
enslaved giantesses in Grottasongr 23. and the wrath of the
World Serpent as it speeds on its attack in Voluspa 50. Are
"we to imagine the builder's rage swelling him into a more
gigantic size, which alone would betray his identity? For
the size-shifting of giants (as against their shape-shifting)
I can only cite as analogue the adaptability of Hadingus's
giant-nurse in Saxo (1, vi, 3 : ' nunc roceritate ccelis inve- /1(1/lc;£_11 'I!_
or, nunc in hominem angustioris habitus condicione corn-
!!!!!!!!! '. . •

*17 (i) The notion that the giant-builder is menacing

the JEsir by his fury (either because it is uncontrollable or
because he really means to hurt them) I have introduced
here in imitation of Snorri's story of the giant Hrungnir,
who threatens the JEsir in his drunken temper, saying that
he will carry off Valholl into Giant-Land, make Asgaror
sink, and kill all the gods (except of course Freyja and
Sif). For the tale of the giant--builder, however, the me-

13 See B. ALMOVIST, Norron Niddiktning I , 1965, 119 ff., and refer-

ences in index s.v. hestr.
Vl
76

nacing is not essential; the disclosure of the giant's iden-

tity would be enough reason for summoning :P6rr.

(ii) The calling of :P6rr to deal with an obstreperous

fjiant occurs also in Snorri's account of Hrungnir in Asgaror.
-ifowa~ds the end of Lokasenna, :P6rr arriy_es to threaten Lo-
ki with his hammer, but he is not said to have been summon-
ed.

'' 18 The ironic comment that a giant is being repaid

with a reward ~ry different from his expectations Is found
...also at the conclusion of Prymskvioa.

* 19 ( i) That Loki is the ' mother ' of Sleipnir by Svaoil-

fari is mentioned also in Hyndlolj6o 40 - en Sleipni gat
viO Svaoilfara. In the following stanza of the same poem
another pregnancy of Loki's is described, when he conceives
after eating a burnt woman's heart and so becomes the
progenitor of troll-hags (flogo). In Lokasenna 23 and 33
Ooinn and Njoror express their outrage at the perversion of
Loki, who has actually given birth to children: ass ragr ...
hefir sa born of borit.

*19 (ii) Sleipnir's reputation as the best of steeds is

noted also in Grimnismdl 44:

Askr Y ggdr;:tsils, hann er reztr viDa, ...

, Ooinn asa , en j6a Slei,gnir.

The composition of Snorri's story

Bearing these analogues in mind, I should like to

consider the composition of Snorri's story. We can arrive
at a flawless narrative organization of the numerous mo-
tifs that go to its making if we revise his account in two
respects: (i) the giant-nature of the itinerant builder must
be kept secret until his outburst of giant-fury, and (ii) men-
tion of the swearing of oaths to the builder must come
before the ./Esir see the prodigious powers of the stallion.
 'VOLUSPA' AND SATIRIC TRADITION 77

Revision (i)

By introducing the phrase cett jotna into stanza 25 the

poet of V oluspd would seem to imply that .the !Esir already
knew that the builder was a giant. At the same point in the
story, in the dismayed question of the !Esir, Snorri implies
this too. We could therefore suppose that in the form of
story Snorri was following the builder's giant-nature was
always quite apparent to the !Esir. Against this, however, I
would point out (i) that Snorri introduces the builder as
smior nokkurr, without mention of giants ; (ii) that the
' nice irony of the builder's offer to build a fortress against
giants would hardly be possible if it was clear he was hi~=
selt a giant; (iii) that it is the sudden dropping of the build-
ers disguise in his jotunm6or that justifies the summon-
ing of P6rr and affords the !Esir some excuse for brushing
'aside the1r oaths - had not the bmlder deceived them? It
· would seem obvious that Snorri used a version of the
story in which the builder's identity was concealed from
the !Esir and that Snorri introduced the reference to the
giants in the !Esir's question because it was there in Vo-
luspd 25, a stanza he cites.
His embarrassment at the clash between the story he
was following and the text of Volus d is evident in his use
o t e phrase ti viss to explain wh the !Esir call P6rr on!
now - w en the !Esir saw for certain that a hill-giant had
come there ... they summoned Porr - even though he has
previously spoken unambiguously of their giving Freyja,
sun and moon to the giants.

Revision (ii)

At what point in the story would the oaths have been

sworn to the builder? Snorri mentions the oaths not at the
moment when they were sworn, but when the builder is
already at his work and the true nature of the situation is
beginning 1:·0 dawn on the !Esir. If we envisage the legend in
terms of a dramatic poem, rich in dialogue, in the witty,
YJ.

78

alert style of Prymskvioa, we can see that the builder would

have demanded oaths and witnesses from the IEsir at a
very significant moment, and that this moment would re-
present a comic climax. Four cards have been played in the
poker-game between the IEsir and the builder: he has offer-
ed his terms; the IEsir have modified those terms - with
respect to the timing of the work, but not the payment; the
builder modifies the terms once again - may he use his
horse?- and here the IEsir play the wrong card: they grant
him his horse. Now the builder asks that the contract should
be sealed by oaths and witnessed, because now be knows
he will win. Now he only needs to ensure that the IEsir's
hands will be tied when he moves off - legitimately -
with sun, moon and Freyja. Snorri's explanation of the build-
er's request for solemn oaths is therefore somewhat mis-
leading. He offers a general reason, that giants are scared
to be in Asgaror without grio, lest P6rr should come home
(a reason appropriate enough for Hrungnir), but the true
reason is a specific one, relating precisely to this legend
and to this turning-point in the story. The builder's request
for oaths, to assure him from attack when he has carried
out his contract, is the fifth card in the game. By his clumsy
explanation of the oaths sworn to the builder and by fail-
ing to mention the swearing of them at the moment when
it happened, Snorri has, I suggest, obscured an elegant co-
mic structure in his source.
If Snorri himself had created the ' myth ' of the giant-
builder in Asgaror, why did he not make it clear at the
beginning that the builder was a giant, since this was clearly
a 'fact' he intended to adopt from Voluspd? Why too, if
he meant to present a tale that accorded with Voluspd, did
he not adopt what that text appeared to state, namely that
Freyja had already been delivered into the hands of the
giants : ... hverr hefoi... rett jotna Oos mey gefna? And how
could he construct so cleverly, from so many traditional mo-
tifs, a tale that reached the brink of structural perfection,
and then spoil it by not understanding the excellence of
his own invention? Speculation has, of course, many paths,
but in this instance, for me, all lead back to the view of De
'VOLUSPA' AND SATIRIC TRADITION 79

Vries, who rejects the suggestion that Snorri himself made •

up the story, 'because it does not agree with the working
method of Snorri, who is more of a compilator and an ar-
ranger of traditions than an inventor' 14 •

The story behind Voluspa 25-26

De Vries argued that the story Snorri tells in Gylfagin-

ning had no original connection with stanzas 25 and 26 of
Voluspd, -but that Snorri interpreted those stanzas - and
interpreted them wrongly - in the light of a legend he
knew. If the story behind Voluspd 25-26 is not the same as
Snorri's, then what can it be? Any alternative story must
meet the following requirements:

(1) it must have some points of similarity to Snorri's

story, otherwise he would not have cited the two stanzas of
Voluspd in connection with it.
(2) the JEsir swear oaths to a gial!t.Jor giants). y
(3) disasters befall the JE.sir: the air is ruined, Freyja 0 { C)IAYII"}
is given to the giants. - ~
( 4) the JEsir ask who is responsible for these disasters.
(5) Parr is informed of the situation and smites the
giant(s).
(6) by this act the JEsir's solemn oaths are broken.
In (2) and (5) we must involve the giants although they are
not specifically mentioned in Voluspd in connection with
these incidents. P6rr has just heard what the JE.sir are about
to lose to the cett jotna (hann slikt um fregn), so it is clear
that the giant-race are going to suffer from his blow; that
the oaths were sworn to that race also follows.
---·----·- -- ----·- - --
Let us imagine a tale that meets the six requirements I
have listed. As we have two analogues for the taking of a
goddess (Iounn, Prut'Sr) by giants, we could assume that the

14 J. DE VRIES, op. cit. 77. .

 80 /?
story behind Voluspd 25-26 was another initance of that
theme:
I
A giant offers to perform some service for the JEsir, or
to give them something, for which in return he will be given
the goddess Freyja and the power to destroy in some way
the wholesomeness of the air.
The JEsir accept and swear oaths to seal the arrange-
ment.
The giant fulfils his undertaking and takes his reward.
The JEsir do not at once call P6rr, but assemble in
council and ask who is to blame for giving away Freyja
to the giants and spoiling the air (in some way). To this
question there is no answer of consequence.
The JEsir then inform P6rr, who (? pursues and) kills
·the giant(s) with his hammer, so violating the oaths that
confirmed the pact with the giant(s).
The main weakness in this reconstruction is patent:
there should be some answer to the JEsir's question. The
poet's use of the term lee indicates that the answer is likely
to be Loki, and when Loki is blamed by the .tEsir, he must
find some ingenious means of saving them once again. So
we are led back to Snorri's story or some tale very like it.
Many fuller and more animated narratives could no
doubt be reconstructed by a more inventive critic, but I
have not succeeded in elaborating any that are satisfactory
in terms of artistry or extant tradition. My chief reason,
however, for not pursuing such a solution further is that the
divergences of Voluspd from Snorri's story seem to me to be
explicable by much simpler and more convincing means.
I would, for example, accept (like many other scholars)
Nordal's suggestion that the past tenses in stanza 25 (hverr
hefoi lopt ... blandit e/Ja ... mey gefna) were deliberately
chosen by the poet to represent with=-;tartling immediacy
the fears of the .tEsir, envisaging the terrible consequences
of their bargain as already accomplished facts 15 • It is also

15 S. NORDAL, op. cit. 87 (SkaldiCl lretur Asu kveCla i rikasta lagi

ao orCli til pess aCl syna skelfingu peirra, pegar peir atta sig).

Ef5-<: , --"~nr?Ji c*~ f""1;) ~ S.j · ) :oo ih..H

w~"cA o~rr Jh_.~t ""~ c;;b_. ~n As ?oWL'f~
-------------
 Yl

81
' VOLUSPA' AND SATIRIC TRADITION

possible that past tenses in an original stanza *11 (whose

.
phrasing Snorri might be to some extent following: e.g.
*hverr hefoi rdoit at !opt WEri blandit ... eoa Freyja gefin)
prompted the dramatic attraction of past tenses into V oluspa
itself. The ominous and elusive phrase lcevi blandit could
have been used already in a hypothetical stanza *11, in an-
tiCipation of the fact that Loki inn ~is going to be blam-
ed. We should also bear in mind the alternative possibilities
(and aher the hypothetical stanzas *3, *4, *11 and *12 ac-
cordingly), that (1) the poet of V oluspa himself introduced
the term lee here irf order to underline the destructive ma-
levolence latent in the situation and to colour Loki, the culp-
rit, with his later character (such as we see it in Lokasen-
na), and (2) the same stringent sensibility of the poet's has
dictated the appellation os n1e) for Freyja, to evoke the
tender, grieving aspects of the go ess at t is moment of
her threatened loss, rather than her sorceries and notorious
sensuality.
If we accept this explanation of the past tenses (hefoi ...
blandit, ... gefna) in stanza 25, we are still confronted by
what appears to be an anachronistic reference to the giant
race, cett jotna. I suggest that this is a device of the poet's
to achieve a purposeful compi-ession: he syncopates the
narrative to fit it more pointedly into the theme of his larger
poem, by imposing upon the JEsir's dismayed question
the full nature of their dilemma as it was later known to
them. In the hypothetical stanza * 11, to have knowledge of
the builder's giant identity would be wholly inappropriate
at this moment of the action, and I have therefore diverged
from the text of V oluspa here. But in an allusive reference
to the legend, in which only the facts relevant to the larger
theme of Voluspa should be salient, we need to know that
what threatens the JEsir at this moment is the giant-race.
From this fact the poet can move directly to the giant-smash-
ing of P6rr and the oaths that are broken by it. The preoccu-
pations of the poet's mind are clearly betrayed by the fore-
shortening of the narrative in 25/5-8, in sharp stylistic con-
trast with the leisureliness and emphatic repetition of 26.
And yet, in the foreshortened narrative, by using the hint
Vl

82

of direct speech in the JEsir's question - which I suggest

he found in his source - he succeeds in evoking succinctly
the whole of the underlying dramatic narrative.
If we accept the view that the poet of V oluspd was
alluding to the legend of the giant-builder as told by Snorri,
we can note the clever link he has made with the preceding
legend of the JEsir-Vanir war 16 • In that war the woode
'palisade round the JEsir's fortress was shattered- brotinn
var boroveggr borgar dsa (Voluspd 24). The building of a
stone wall would be a wise next step. It is a link made, I
suggest, by the poet as mythographer, forming his own ra-
tional history of the gods out' or--tile' wealth of unrelated
legends that tradftiori- a ff"ordecCh:im. A b;rn structuralist,
the poet has seen, too, a thematic link between the legend
of the giant-builder, with his menacing bargain, and age-old
· eschatological motifs. This narrow escape of the gods from
a black sky and infertile summers is their last escape; what
they fear now - !opt alt lcevi blandit - will become a
reality: svort vera~ s61skin of sumor eptir, veor all valynd
(Voluspd 41), and when .f>6rr dies the sun itself will grow
black: sol ter sortna (Voluspd 57). How well the legend of
the giant-builder fits into the context of Voluspd- far better,
indeed, . than the legend of . Iounn, captured by the giant
· Pjazi, or of P6rr fishing the World Serpent and smashing
Hymir's folk, could ever have done.
lhese fehc1t1es of composition cannot, however, have
been the poet's primary reason for choosing and placing
here the giant-builder legend. As lines 5-8 of stanza 26 show,
he wanted to use the moral theme of the IEsir's broken oaths.
In the legend, as Snorri's account reveals it, the breaking
of the oaths comes as the culmination of repeated reference
to the swearing of oaths: first by the .tEsir, then by Loki;
no other extant legend of the gods gives the oath-motif
such prominence. So we return to the most puzzling
problem: why has the poet of Voluspd distorted a hilarious

16 S. NORDAL, op. cit. 86, assumes that Snorri has overlooked a

traditional link between the !Esir-Vanir war and the building of
their new wall.
 • .1.

' VOLUSPA ' AND SATIRIC TRADITION 83

story of the gods into a reprehensible one, pregnant with

disaster?
The answer to this question is, I think, that any act
in any legend of the gods, any aspect of their sacred nature,
can be seized upon by the satirist to travesty or distort in
accordance with the traditional techniques of Norse satire.
This satire was, no doubt, as old as the religion itself: cert-
ainly anterior to the conversion to Christianity. When Hjalti
Skeggjason takes the stance of Loki in his -mockery of
Freyja - 'ViZ ek eigi goo ge ja. Grey pykki mer Freyja'
e IS on y remin ing the heat en action in Icelan
of their own lewd iconoclasm in their less puritanical mo-
ments, an iconoclasm we see well exposed in Lokasenna.
Among the libellous mockeries of the gods in that poem,
there are also bitterly fresh ways of looking at their mythic-
al deeds. When Ooinn is killed by the Wolf at Ragnarok,
he is avenged by his son Vioarr; this is the established trad-
ition. Who would wish to mock P6rr, mighty challenger
of the World Serpent, for being afraid of the Wolf? But
why else does he not avenge his father? Such would seem
to Loki's satiric version of the facts:

Hvf prasir J:>\1 sva, I>6rr? - Why are you storming so,
l>6rr? -
en J:>a porir pu ekki, but you will not dare to then
er pu skalt vill Ulf vega, when you have to fight with the
Wolf
ok svelgr hann allan Sigfoour. and he's swallowing War-Father
whole.
(Lokasenna 58)

So too Loki 's version of Freyr' s embassy of love to the

giantess Geror is so distorted by calumny that we might
almost persuade ourselves (as Sijmons and~ring do) 18
_
that _.....m
· this - cannot
. .
be
.-
the story we knowas Skirnismdl:
'l::l:'l'!' A' " 01 ,.., - • . . "

17 ' I will not deride the gods. I think Freyja is a bitch'. lslendin-
gab6k eh. 7, lslenzk Fornrit I, 1968, 15.
18 Kommentar zu den Liedern der Edda by H. GERING, edited
after the author's death by B.. Sijmons. I Gotterlieder, 1927, 297.
Yl

84

Gulli kevota You had Gymis daughter

Ieztu Gymis d6ttur bought with gold
ok seldir pitt sva svero - and gave your sword, too -
en er Muspellz synir but when Muspell's sons
rioa Myrkvio yfir, ride across Murkwood
veizta pu pa, vesall , hve pu vegr. you don't know then, pitiful
fellow,
how you'll tight.
(Lokasenna 42)

But Loki is deliberately twisting the truth of the story while

retaining the bare facts. Freyr did try to win Geror's love
• with golden 12resei;,JtS - but these golden presents represent
the glorious aspects of the divinity he wishes to share with
her - and, in any case, she refuses them. Fragments of
archaic mythology cling to Freyr, a fertility god, in the trad-
ition that he killed an enemy (the giant Beli) with a stag's
horn 19 • Why has he no proper weapon, no sword, the prag-
. mat1c mythographers of a later age may ask, and the satir-
ists find their own answer: he sacrificed it to his lust, and
this he will regret at Ragnarok. Freyr certainly did give
his sword to his messenger Skirnir to wield, if necessary,
against the giants, to win Geror from them, according to
Skirnismdl. Skirnir only needed the sword, however, to per-
form Freyr's own will on this one occasion, and when Freyr
'gives' him sword and horse he is after all only bestowing
them on another aspect of his shining self, and expecting
to receive both back again after the mission. But no one
can avert the satirist's nio by rational argument; he will see
the place to wound and drive his dart into it. It is useless
to point out that Njall has four sons; the jibe of effeminacy
provoked by his beardless chin will spring perennially.
In emphasizing the moral enormity of the oath-break-
ing of the gods in the tale of the giant-builder, the poet of
Voluspd is doing just what Loki, in his Thersites-role, would
have done. The poet could indeed be drawing here upon a
stanza that could have stood in another Lokasenna: either

19 See J. DE VRIES, Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte. 2nd

edition, 1956-7, § 462.
 'VOLUSPA' AND SATIRIC TRADITION 85

he is following a moral-satiric tradition already known to

his audience in relation to the giant-builder tale, or he is
employing independently a moral-satiric mode of interpre-
ting legends of the gods which would itself be familiar and
acceptable to his audience.
There is perhaps a shred of evidence that the tale of
the oath-breaking was current in satiric tradition. As Loki
~~g!Ueaves the feast of the gods under the .thre~f
Parr's hammer, he claims that the does so only because' he
knows that Parr strikes ' - Pviat ek veit at pu vegr. It is
his last jibe at P6rr: is he reminding him of that other time
when he struck - P6rr einn va .=--~broke the oaths of
the gods? If that is how P6rr behaves, how can Loki~t
' his honour now? He has Ooinn's safe-conduct - lcit ulfs
foour sitia sumbli at - but what is it worth when P6rr is
jJrunginn m6oi?
In Lokasenna, immediately after this jibe at P6rr,
comes the prophecy of Ragnarok. Loki has unburdened his
hating soul -

Kvao ek fyr asom, I have uttered before the JEsir,

kvao ek fyr asa sonom, I have uttered before the JEsir's
sons
]Jatz mik hvatti hugr what my heart stung me to

- and now he prophesies and curses: this is the last ale

JEgir will brew for any feast. May flames leap over all his
wealth, blaze at his back. These are the flames of the world's
end that Loki wishes upon him. Satirical criticism of the
gods' actions and characters is placed in direct relation to
eschatological tradition here, and in the tale of Freyr's sword,
and in the mocking of P6rr for not avenging his father. So
too, the poet of V oluspa places the oath-breaking of the
gods before the eschatological section of his poem. This
opens with the vision of the sibyl who lived when Ooinn
needed counsel, and who answered his prayer for foreknow-
ledge with the sight of valkyries gathering and Baldr
covered with blood. The spectres of past deeds can be baleful,
and their memory should not be lightly played with.
 86

C>rli:igom ykrom Of your fated deeds

skylit aldregi you should never
segja seggjom fra, speak to men,
hvat it resir tveir what life you two IBsir
drygoot i ardaga - led in early days -
firriz re fom ri:ik firar one should always leave the past
behind
(Lokasenna 25)

- so Frigg warns Loki and Ooinn as they mock each other

viciously for the times in their lives when they have acted
as women, Loki eight years a ·milkmaid in hell, Ooinn an
emasculate shaman imitating the rites of the volur - farc-
ical moments we might tlimk, 6ut Frigg sees a haunting
fate implicit in them. The poet of Voluspd too, trained in
a similar exegesis, uncovers a fatal error in the farce of
the gods' broken oaths. The moral structure of Voluspd
· grows palpable against the background of Lokasenna, and
the enigmas less dark. By a patient poetic archaeology, by
envisaging every fragment of extant verse in the context of
its possible whole, we may gain some insight into the layers
of tradition we have lost and see the poets' art more nearly
as it may have been in their own day.