Gerth spake:
16. "Bid the man come in, and drink good mead
Here within our hall;
Though this I fear, that there without
My brother's slayer stands.
17. "Art thou of the elves | or the offspring of gods,
Or of the wise Wanes?
How camst thou alone | through the leaping flame
Thus to behold our home?"
Skirnir spake:
18. "I am not of the elves, | nor the offspring of gods,
Nor of the wise Wanes;
Though I came alone | through the leaping flame
Thus to behold thy home.
19. "Eleven apples, | all of gold,
Here will I give thee, Gerth,
To buy thy troth | that Freyr shall be
Deemed to be dearest to you."
Gerth spake:
20. "I will not take | at any man's wish
These eleven apples ever;
Nor shall Freyr and I | one dwelling find
So long as we two live."
[16. Brother's slayer: perhaps the brother is Beli, slain by Freyr; the only other references are in Voluspo, 53, and in Snorri's paraphrase of
the Skirnismol, which merely says that Freyr's gift of his sword to Skirnir "was the reason why he was weaponless when he met Beli, and he killed
him bare-handed." Skirnir himself seems never to have killed anybody.
17. Wise Wanes: Cf. Voluspo, 21 and note.
18. The Arnamagnæan Codex omits this stanza.
19. Apples: the apple was the symbol of fruitfulness, and also of eternal youth. According to Snorri, the goddess Ithun had charge of the apples which the gods ate whenever they felt themselves growing old.]
|
|
Gerðr kvað:
16. "Inn bið þú hann ganga í okkarn sal
ok drekka inn mæra mjöð;
þó ek hitt óumk, at hér úti sé
minn bróðurbani.
17. Hvat er þat alfa né ása sona
né víssa vana?
Hví þú einn of komt eikinn fúr yfir
ór salkynni at séa?"
Skírnir kvað:
18. "Emk-at ek alfa né ása sona
né víssa vana;
þó ek einn of komk eikinn fúr yfir
yður salkynni at séa."
19. "Epli ellifu hér hef ek algullin,
þau mun ek þér, Gerðr, gefa,
frið at kaupa, at þú þér Frey kveðir
óleiðastan lifa."
Gerðr kvað:
20. "Epli ellifu ek þigg aldregi
at mannskis munum, né vit Freyr,
meðan okkart fjör lifir,
byggjum bæði saman."
|
