# The Poetic Edda (tr. Bellows)/Hymiskvitha

HYMISKVITHA The Lay of Hymir
Introductory Note
The Hymiskvitha is found complete in both manuscripts; in Regius it follows the Harbarthsljoth, while in the Arnamagnæan Codex it comes after the Grimnismol. Snorri does not quote it, although he tells the main story involved.
The poem is a distinctly inferior piece of work, obviously based on various narrative fragments, awkwardly pieced together. Some critics, Jessen and Edzardi for instance, have maintained that the compiler had before him three distinct poems, which he simply put together; others, like Finnur Jonsson and Mogk, think that the author made a new poem of his own on the basis of earlier poems, now lost. It seems probable that he took a lot of odds and ends of material concerning Thor, whether in prose or in verse, and worked them together in a perfunctory way, without much caring how well they fitted. His chief aim was probably to impress the credulous imaginations of hearers greedy for wonders.
The poem is almost certainly one of the latest of those dealing with the gods, though Finnur Jonsson, in order to support his theory of a Norwegian origin, has to date it relatively early. If, as seems probable, it was produced in Iceland, the chances are that it was composed in the first half of the eleventh century. Jessen, rather recklessly, goes so far as to put it two hundred years later. In any case, it belongs to a period of literary decadence,—the great days of Eddic poetry would never have permitted the nine hundred headed person found in Hymir's home—and to one in which the usual forms of diction in mythological poetry had yielded somewhat to the verbal subtleties of skaldic verse.
While the skaldic poetry properly falls outside the limits of this book, it is necessary here to say a word about it. There is preserved, in the sagas and elsewhere, a very considerable body of lyric poetry, the authorship of each poem being nearly always definitely stated, whether correctly or otherwise. This type of poetry is marked by an extraordinary complexity of diction, with a peculiarly difficult vocabulary of its own. It was to explain some of the "kennings" which composed this special ​vocabulary that Snorri wrote one of the sections of the Prose Edda. As an illustration, in a single stanza of one poem in the Egilssaga, a sword is called "the halo of the helnn," "the wound-hoe," "the blood-snake" (possibly; no one is sure what the compound word means) and "the ice of the girdle," while men appear in the same stanza as "Othin's ash-trees," and battle is spoken of as "the iron game." One of the eight lines has defied translation completely.
Skaldic diction made relatively few inroads into the earlier Eddic poems, but in the Hymiskvitha these circumlocutions are fairly numerous. This sets the poem somewhat apart from the rest of the mythological collection. Only the vigor of the two main stories—Thor's expedition after Hymir's kettle and the fishing trip in which he caught Mithgarthsorm—saves it from complete mediocrity.
1.Of old the gods   made feast together, And drink they sought   ere sated they were; Twigs they shook,   and blood they tried: Rich fare in Ægir's   hall they found.
​2.The mountain-dweller   sat merry as boyhood, But soon like a blinded   man he seemed; The son of Ygg   gazed in his eyes: "For the gods a feast   shalt thou forthwith get."
3.The word-wielder toil   for the giant worked, And so revenge   on the gods he sought; He bade Sif's mate   the kettle bring: "Therein for ye all   much ale shall I brew."
4.The far-famed ones   could find it not, And the holy gods   could get it nowhere; Till in truthful wise   did Tyr speak forth, And helpful counsel   to Hlorrithi gave.
5."There dwells to the east   of Elivagar Hymir the wise   at the end of heaven; A kettle my father   fierce doth own, A mighty vessel   a mile in depth." ​
Thor spake: 6."May we win, dost thou think,   this whirler of water?"
Tyr spake:
"Aye, friend, we can,   if cunning we are."
7.Forward that day   with speed they fared, From Asgarth came they   to Egil's home; The goats with horns   bedecked he guarded; Then they sped to the hall   where Hymir dwelt.
8.The youth found his grandam,   that greatly he loathed, ​And full nine hundred   heads she had; But the other fair   with gold came forth, And the bright-browed one   brought beer to her son.
9."Kinsman of giants,   beneath the kettle Will I set ye both,   ye heroes bold; For many a time   my dear-loved mate To guests is wrathful   and grim of mind."
10.Late to his home   the misshapen Hymir, The giant harsh,   from his hunting came; The icicles rattled   as in he came, For the fellow's chin-forest   frozen was.
11."Hail to thee, Hymir!   good thoughts mayst thou have; Here has thy son   to thine hall now come; (For him have we waited,   his way was long;) And with him fares   the foeman of Hroth, The friend of mankind,   and Veur they call him. ​
12."See where under   the gable they sit! Behind the beam   do they hide themselves." The beam at the glance   of the giant broke, And the mighty pillar   in pieces fell.
13.Eight fell from the ledge,   and one alone, The hard-hammered kettle,   of all was whole; Forth came they then,   and his foes he sought, The giant old,   and held with his eyes.
14.Much sorrow his heart   foretold when he saw The giantess' foeman   come forth on the floor; Then of the steers   did they bring in three; Their flesh to boil   did the giant bid.
15.By a head was each   the shorter hewed, And the beasts to the fire   straight they bore; The husband of Sif,   ere to sleep he went, Alone two oxen   of Hymir's ate.
16.To the comrade hoary   of Hrungnir then Did Hlorrithi's meal   full mighty seem; "Next time at eve   we three must eat The food we have   {illegible}s the hunting's spoil." ​
17.... Fain to row on the sea   was Veur, he said, If the giant bold   would give him bait.
Hymir spake: 18."Go to the herd,   if thou hast it in mind, Thou slayer of giants,   thy bait to seek; For there thou soon   mayst find, methinks, Bait from the oxen   easy to get."
19.Swift to the wood   the hero went, Till before him an ox   all black he found; From the beast the slayer   of giants broke The fortress high   of his double horns.
Hymir spake: 20."Thy works, methinks,   are worse by far, ​Thou steerer of ships,   than when still thou sittest." ... ...
21.The lord of the goats   bade the ape-begotten Farther to steer   the steed of the rollers; But the giant said   that his will, forsooth, Longer to row   was little enough.
22.Two whales on his hook   did the mighty Hymir Soon pull up   on a single cast; In the stern the kinsman   of Othin sat, And Veur with cunning   his cast prepared.
23.The warder of men,   the worm's destroyer, Fixed on his hook   the head of the ox; There gaped at the bait   the foe of the gods, The girdler of all   the earth beneath. ​
24.The venomous serpent   swiftly up To the boat did Thor,   the bold one, pull; With his hammer the loathly   hill of the hair Of the brother of Fenrir   he smote from above.
25.The monsters roared,   and the rocks resounded, And all the earth   so old was shaken; ... Then sank the fish   in the sea forthwith.
26.... Joyless as back   they rowed was the giant; Speechless did Hymir   sit at the oars, With the rudder he sought   a second wind.
Hymir spake: 27."The half of our toil   wilt thou have with me, ​And now make fast   our goat of the flood; Or home wilt thou bear   the whales to the house, Across the gorge   of the wooded glen?"
28.Hlorrithi stood   and the stem he gripped, And the sea-horse with water   awash he lifted; Oars and bailer   and all he bore With the surf-swine home   to the giant's house.
29.His might the giant   again would match, For stubborn he was,   with the strength of Thor; None truly strong,   though stoutly he rowed, Would he call save one   who could break the cup.
30.Hlorrithi then,   when the cup he held, Struck with the glass   the pillars of stone; As he sat the posts   in pieces he shattered, Yet the glass to Hymir whole they brought.
31.But the loved one fair   of the giant found A counsel true,   and told her thought: " ​Smite the skull of Hymir,   heavy with food, For harder it is   than ever was glass."
32.The goats' mighty ruler   then rose on his knee, And with all the strength   of a god he struck; Whole was the fellow's   helmet-stem, But shattered the wine-cup   rounded was.
Hymir spake: 33."Fair is the treasure   that from me is gone, Since now the cup   on my knees lies shattered;" So spake the giant:   "No more can I say In days to be,   'Thou art brewed, mine ale.'
34."Enough shall it be   if out ye can bring Forth from our house   the kettle here." Tyr then twice   to move it tried, But before him the kettle   twice stood fast.
35.The father of Mothi   the rim seized firm, And before it stood   on the floor below; Up on his head   Sif's husband raised it, And about his heels   the handles clattered. ​
36.Not long had they fared,   ere backwards looked The son of Othin,   once more to see; From their caves in the east   beheld he coming With Hymir the throng   of the many-headed.
37.He stood and cast   from his back the kettle, And Mjollnir, the lover   of murder, he wielded; ... So all the whales   of the waste he slew.
38.Not long had they fared   ere one there lay Of Hlorrithi's goats   half-dead on the ground; In his leg the pole-horse   there was lame; The deed the evil   Loki had done. ​
39.But ye all have heard,—   for of them who have The tales of the gods,   who better can tell? What prize he won   from the wilderness-dweller, Who both his children   gave him to boot.
40.The mighty one came   to the council of gods, And the kettle he had   that Hymir's was; So gladly their ale   the gods could drink In Ægir's hall   at the autumn-time.