nor arched Heaven:
an abyss gaping
without blade of grass.
Stanza 4 (‘Unmarred their mirth. . .’) was not present. Stanza 13 (in text A stanza 12) reads:
The wolf for óeinn
at the world’s ending (> waits unsleeping),
for Frey the fair
flames of Surtur;
the doom of Thór
the Dragon beareth:
all shall be ended
and Earth perish.
Though not so marked in the manuscript, the words of the Sibyl clearly end here, and stanzas 14–15, in which the Sibyl speaks of the r?le of Sigurd at the Ragnar?k, are here absent. Then follow in A stanzas 16–20 of the final text, the conclusion of the Upphaf, in which the Gods prepare for the Last Battle according to the prophecy, and ending with the words ‘for one they waited, / the World’s chosen’. In A at this point the meaning of those words is not explained. But in this version it is the stanzas 14–15 of the final form, absent here from the prophecy of the Sibyl, that form the conclusion of the Upphaf. The first reads:
In Day of Doom
he should deathless stand
to die no more
who had death tasted,
the serpent-slayer.
seed of óeinn,
the walls defending,
the World’s chosen.
And the concluding stanza in text A is virtually the same as stanza 15 in the final form. Thus the prophecy concerning Sigurd is present in A, but not as the words of the Sibyl.
The second text B is not titled Upphaf but The Elder Edda (the reason for this will appear in a moment). It is far closer to the final form in the detail of its wording, indeed it only differs here and there. That it was developed from text A is clear from the pencilled corrections made to A that appear in B as written. But it is much shorter than A. The opening stanza is absent (the poem begins ‘The Great Gods once / began their toil’) – but stanza 1 in the final form (‘Of old was an age / when was emptiness . . .’) is scribbled in pencil in the margin. Stanza 4 (‘Unmarred their mirth. . .’) is also absent, as it is in A; but most curiously, the whole of the prophecy of the Sibyl (stanzas 10–15) is missing. The B-text has thus only 12 stanzas. The last verse begins ‘The guests are many’; and the last lines of the verse read, not ‘for one they waited, / the World’s chosen’, as in A and the final text, but ‘long awaiting / the last battle’. Thus the motive of Sigurd as (in ódin’s hope) the saviour at the Ragnar?k is absent.
This truncated version of Upphaf is the opening of a paper read to, or perhaps more probably designed to be read to, a society, presumptively at Oxford. The first words following the poem were:
And that is, I think, all I have to say (of my own) concerning the Elder Edda. There is the ancient measure and strophe in which most of it is written – in which our own poetry was once composed, and in which it still can be if one will learn the craft (not an easy one) – there is the background of the imagination of its poets; and though this is not a translation of an Eddaic poem it is just like one, and all its elements may be found in that book, most of them in the very first poem of all which deals directly with this very theme.
Only the opening paragraphs of the paper are preserved, either because they were written on the same page as the last stanza of the poem and the rest was discarded, or because the paper never went beyond this point, at any rate in this form.
There is no indication of date. There is also no way of knowing for certain why my father reduced the poem in this way; but a perhaps plausible explanation offers itself. The earlier text A had introduced his very strange and distinctive conception of ‘the special function of Sigurd’, ‘an invention of the present poet’, in his words (see Commentary, pp.183–85). He now had the idea of introducing his paper with a brief recital of a piece of his own ‘Norse’ poetry; but to use his Upphaf for this purpose would require the omission of all the verses that bore upon the idea of ‘the World’s chosen’, the ‘special function of Sigurd’ – the imposition of a new significance on the myth.
Did he see this brief work, when he wrote it, as the prelude to a long poem on the legend of Sigurd? It seems impossible to say (the title Upphaf does not necessarily imply this: it may refer to the content of the poem, as I incline to suppose).
The other surviving earlier texts mentioned on p.40, section I of V?lsungakviea en nyja, ‘Andvari’s Gold’, and the first nine stanzas of section II, ‘Signy’, stand to the final form as does text A of the Upphaf, in that there is constant difference in detail of vocabulary and phrasing.
GUDRúNARKVIDA EN NYJA
eea
DRáP NIFLUNGA
GUDRúNARKVIDA EN NYJA
1 Smoke had faded,
sunk was burning;
windblown ashes
were wafted cold.
As sun setting
had Sigurd passed;
and Brynhild burned
as blazing fire.
2 Their bliss was over,
their bale ended;
but Gudrún’s grief
ever grew the more.
Life she hated,
but life took not,
witless wandering
in woods alone.
*
3 Atli ariseth
armies wielding;
on the marches of the East
his might waxeth.
Goths he tramples,
gold despoiling,
his horsemen countless
hasten westward.
4 He, Budli’s son,
blades remembers
that of Budli’s brother
were the bane of old;
he, gold-greedy,
grimhearted king,
hath heard of the hoard
on the Heath that lay.
5 Of Fáfnir’s treasure
fame was rumoured,
that Niflungs held
in Niflung-land;
of Gudrún’s beauty
gleaming-lovely;
of Gjúki aged
to his grave passing.
*
6 From mighty Mirkwood
came message darkly:
‘Atli ariseth
armies mustering.
Hate awakens,
hosts are arming;
under horses’ hooves
Hunland trembles!’
7 Gunnar spake then
gloomy-hearted:
Gunnar ‘Fierce will the feud be,
fell the onslaught!
With gold and silver
shall his greed be stayed,
with gold and silver
or gleaming swords?’
8 Then spake H?gni,
haughty chieftain:
H?gni ‘The might of Sigurd
we mourn at last!
Victory rode ever
with the V?lsung lord;
now alone will war
our land defend.’
9 Then spake Grímhild
grey with wisdom:
Grímhild ‘Gudrún is fair,
gleaming-lovely –
let us bind him in bonds
as brother wedded,
in Hunland’s queen
our help seeking!’
10 Gudrún they sought,
grieving found her
in woodland house
weaving lonely;
weaving wondrous
webs bright-figured
with woe tangled
and with works of old.
*
11 ódin she wrought
old, blue-mantled;
Loki lightfooted
with locks of flame;
the falls of Andvari
framed of silver,
the gold of Andvari
she gleaming wove.
12 The house of V?lsung
huge was timbered,
the Tree there tossed
tangled branches.
There Grímnir’s gift
gleaming brandished
Sigmund standing
stern unbending.
13 The hall of Siggeir
high was burning
fire-encircled
flame-devouréd.
Signy stood there
Sigmund greeting,
fire about her,
flame behind her.
14 Shields of silver
had the ship of Sigmund;
wild the waves were,
wind them twisted.
Sailed there slowly
Sinfj?tli’s bier
through stormy seas
steered by ódin.
15 There Regin wrought
by the red embers;
there Gram was hammered
amid gleaming sparks.
High loomed the head
of helméd dragon;
under black belly
there was blink of gold.
16 Long lay the shadow
of lone rider
golden-harnessed
Gram brandishing;
sun-bright Sigurd
seed of V?lsung,
on Grani riding
into Gjúki’s courts.
*
17 Golden weregild
Gunnar brought her,
haughty H?gni
humbly bent him.
Gudrún they hailed,
Gunnar and H?gni;
head she turned not,
hate still burned her.
18 In came Grímhild
guileful-hearted:
Grímhild ‘Dearest daughter
droop no longer!
Burnt is Brynhild,
bale is ended;
life yet shineth,
thou