Building Asgard’s Wall

Today I present the tale of the building of Asgard’s wall in a lore poem of eleven stanzas of fornyrðislag with completely anglicized spelling. It is based on the story as found in the Gylfaginning of Snorri Sturluson’s Edda. It tells how Asgard got a defensive wall and of the origin of the eight-legged horse Sleipnir. The opening stanza in my poem includes a feature that is found in many skaldic poems — a reference to poetry through one of the many kennings for it. The poem’s title is simply “Building Asgard’s Wall.”

Silence I seek
for saying my tale
of the master mason
who meant to build
for the garth of gods
the greatest of walls;
with Ygg’s ale now
I utter my words.

Midgard was made
and mighty Valhalla;
for proof against
the passage of etins
the Aesir sought
a solid defense;
a builder offered
the best of walls.

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Toasts to Heroes and Ancestors

Since all of last week’s toasts were to the gods, this week I present toasts to ancestors and heroes. There are three of them, and each toast is two stanzas of ljóðaháttr.

A Toast to the Ancestors

Hail the ancestors
of elder times,
those famous folk and heroes.
They laid for our lives
the layers in the well —
the might and main of ørlög!

Today we do
our duty to them:
remembering well their works.
A fimbul full-horn
to those folk we raise.
Hail to our honorable ancestors!

More Short Sumbel Toasts

Today I present four more short sumbel toasts, one each to Thor, Tyr, Heimdall, and Freyja. Each toast is two stanzas of ljóðaháttr. The spellings have all been fully anglicized.

A Toast to Thor

Hail Thor,
thunder’s wielder,
Asgard’s chosen champion;
that bane of etins,
and best of warriors
is father to Modi and Magni.

He slew Hrungnir
and hammered Thrym
with peerless might and main.
For warding well
this world of Midgard,
Hail to thunderous Thor!

Audio for The Mead Quest

I now present an audio recording of my poem The Mead Quest, which is a short poetic rendering of Óðin’s winning of Óðrerir, the poetic mead. For aspiring skalds in modern Asatru, this tale is perhaps the most important part of the mythology.

Here is the file of me reciting the poem: Eirik Westcoat – The Mead Quest

Enjoy! Feel free to share the file. For details, see the Creative Commons link below.

This post is:
Copyright © 2013 Eirik Westcoat.
All rights reserved.

The linked audio file of The Mead Quest is:
Copyright © 2013 Eirik Westcoat.
Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives License.