It has been over six months since I last presented some poetic calls to gods and others designed for ritual use. Today I present five more: calls to Freyr, Tyr, Heimdall, Jord, and Aegir. Like the previous calls, these are also two stanzas of ljóðaháttr each (with the stanza break removed as before). Continue reading
Concluding from last week, here are the final seven stazas of “Thor’s Visit to Geirrod.”
To cross Vimur
then ventured Thor;
the river raged,
rising in flood,
with Gialp astride,
Geirrod’s daughter.
Thor was struggling
but thew a stone.
Snorri presents a prose telling of this tale, and he also gives the passage from the Old Norse skaldic poem Þórsdrápa by Eilífr Guðrúnarson that tells the story as well. However, it is a fairly difficult skaldic poem, even when translated to English. (If you have Faulkes’ translation of Snorri’s Edda, you can find this tale on pages 81-86, or in chapter 18 of Skáldskaparmál in other editions.) Thus, a more accessible poetic rendition is needed.
My poem is in 14 stanzas of fornyrðislag, and is titled “Thor’s Visit to Geirrod.” The spellings have been anglicized throughout. I present the first half here today, and the second half will follow next Tuesday.
A warm welcome
I wish to have
for telling the tale
of a trip by Thor
to Geirrod’s garth
and the games in the hall;
the draught of dwarves
I draw for you now.
Like many previous poems on this blog, today’s poem was written for ritual use. However, it is for a ritual that my readers might not have expected me to address: La Louche, the traditional method of preparing absinthe. Now, absinthe fans have a poem they can use along with the usual absinthiana of fountain, glass, and spoon.
