Vafthruthnir spake:
31. "Down from Elivagar | did venom drop,
And waxed till a giant it was;
And thence arose | our giants' race,
And thus so fierce are we found."
Othin spake:
32. "Seventh answer me well, | if wise thou art called,
If thou knowest it, Vafthruthnir, now:
How begat he children, | the giant grim,
Who never a giantess knew?"
Vafthruthnir spake:
33. "They say 'neath the arms | of the giant of ice
Grew man-child and maid together;
And foot with foot | did the wise one fashion
A son that six heads bore."
Othin spake:
34. "Eighth answer me well, | if wise thou art called,
If thou knowest it, Vafthruthnir, now:
What farthest back | dost thou bear in mind?
For wide is thy wisdom, giant!"
Vafthruthnir spake:
35. "Winters unmeasured | ere earth was made
Was the birth of Bergelmir;
This first knew I well, | when the giant wise
In a boat of old was borne."
[31. Snorri quotes {illegible}is stanza, and the last two lines are taken from his version, as both of the manuscripts omit them.
Elivagar ("Stormy Waves"): Mogk suggests that this river may have been the Milky Way. At any rate, the venom carried in its waters
froze into ice-banks over Ginnunga-gap (the "yawning gap" referred to in Voluspo, 3), and then dripped down to make the giant Ymir.
33. Snorri gives, without materially elaborating on it, the same account of how Ymir's son and daughter were born under his left arm,
and how his feet together created a son. That this offspring should have had six heads is nothing out of the ordinary, for various giants
had more than the normal number, and Ymir's mother is credited with a little matter of nine hundred heads; cf. Hymiskvitha, 8. Of the career
of Ymir's six headed son we know nothing; he may have been the Thruthgelmir of stanza 29.
35. Snorri quotes this stanza. Bergelmir: on him and his boat cf. stanza 29 and note.]
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Vafþrúðnir kvað:
31. "Ór Élivágum stukku eitrdropar,
svá óx, unz varð jötunn;
þar eru órar ættir komnar allar saman;
því er þat æ allt til atalt."
Óðinn kvað:
32. "Seg þú þat it sjaunda,
alls þik svinnan kveða,
ok þú, Vafþrúðnir, vitir, hvé sá börn gat,
inn baldni jötunn, er hann hafði-t gýgjar gaman."
Vafþrúðnir kvað:
33. "Undir hendi vaxa kváðu hrímþursi
mey ok mög saman;
fótr við fæti gat ins fróða jötuns
sexhöfðaðan son."
Óðinn kvað:
34. "Seg þú þat it átta,
alls þik svinnan kveða,
ok þú, Vafþrúðnir, vitir, hvat þú fyrst of mant
eða fremst of veizt, þú ert alsviðr, jötunn."
Vafþrúðnir kvað:
35. Örófi vetra áðr væri jörð of sköpuð,
þá var Bergelmir borinn;
þat ek fyrst of man, er sá inn fróði jötunn
á var lúðr of lagiðr."
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