Introductory Note
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Bellows, Henry Adams
The Vafthruthnismol follows the Hovamol in the Codex Regius. From stanza 20 on it is also included in the Arnamagnæan Codex, the first part evidently having appeared on a leaf now lost. Snorri quotes eight stanzas of it in the Prose Edda, and in his prose text closely paraphrases many others.
The poem is wholly in dialogue form except for a single narrative stanza (stanza 5). After a brief introductory discussion between Othin and his wife, Frigg, concerning the reputed wisdom of the giant Vafthruthnir, Othin, always in quest of wisdom, seeks out the giant, calling himself Gagnrath. The giant immediately insists that they shall demonstrate which is the wiser of the two, and propounds four questions (stanzas 11, 13, 15, and 17), each of which Othin answers. It is then the god’s turn to ask, and he begins with a series of twelve numbered questions regarding the origins and past history of life. These Vafthruthnir answers, and Othin asks five more questions, this time referring to what is to follow the destruction of the gods, the last one asking the name of his own slayer. Again Vafthruthnir answers, and Othin finally propounds the unanswerable question: “What spake Othin himself in the ears of his son, ere in the bale-fire he burned?” Vafthruthnir, recognizing his questioner as Othin himself, admits his inferiority in wisdom, and so the contest ends.
The whole poem is essentially encyclopædic in character, and thus was particularly useful to Snorri in his preparation of the Prose Edda. The encyclopædic poem with a slight narrative outline seems to have been exceedingly popular; the Grimnismol and the much later Alvissmol represent different phases of the same type. The Vafthruthnismol and Grimnismol together, indeed, constitute a fairly complete dictionary of Norse mythology. There has been much discussion as to the probable date of the Vafthruthnismol, but it appears to belong to about the same period as the Voluspo: in other words, the middle of the tenth century. While there may be a few interpolated passages in the poem as we now have it, it is clearly a united whole, and evidently in relatively good condition.
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Othin spake:
1. “Counsel me, Frigg, | for I long to fare,
And Vafthruthnir fain would find;
In wisdom old | with the giant wise
Myself would I seek to match.”
Frigg spake:
2. “Heerfather here | at home would I keep,
Where the gods together dwell;
Amid all the giants | an equal in might
To Vafthruthnir know I none.”
Othin spake:
3. “Much have I fared, | much have I found,
Much have I got from the gods;
And fain would I know | how Vafthruthnir now
Lives in his lofty hall.”
Frigg spake:
4. “Safe mayst thou go, | safe come again,
And safe be the way thou wendest!
Father of men, | let thy mind be keen
When speech with the giant thou seekest.”
5. The wisdom then | of the giant wise [70]
Forth did he fare to try;
He found the hall | of the father of Im,
And in forthwith went Ygg.
Othin spake:
6. “Vafthruthnir, hail! | to thy hall am I come,
For thyself I fain would see;
And first would I ask | if wise thou art,
Or, giant, all wisdom hast won.”
Vafthruthnir spake:
7. “Who is the man | that speaks to me,
Here in my lofty hall?
Forth from our dwelling | thou never shalt fare,
Unless wiser than I thou art.”
Othin spake:
8. “Gagnrath they call me, | and thirsty I come