Stanza 5

Konungsbók	Hauksbók	Combined	Gylfaginning + Variants
R 05	H 05	B 05	Gg 8 (5-10 )
Sol varp svNan	Sol uarp sunnan	Sól varp sunnan,
siNi mana	sinni maana	sinni mána,
hendi iNi hogri	hendi inni hægri	hendi inni hœgri	Usually emended to:
vm himin iodyr	of ioður	um himinjódyr.	himinjöður
sol þat ne uiSi	sol þat ne uissi	Sól þat né vissi
huar hon sali at ti	huar hon sali aatti	hvar hon sali átti,
stiornor þat ne viSo	stiornur þat ne uissu	stjörnur þat né vissu
hvar þer staði atto	hvar þær stadi aattu	hvar þær staði áttu,
mani þat ne vissi	maani þat ne vissi	Máni þat né vissi	5-10 ordered: 5-6, 9-10, 7-8 SWTU
hvat hann megins atti.	hvat hann megins atti.	hvat hann megins átti.	megnis T
The sun from the south, the moon´s companion, her right hand cast about the horse-doors. The sun did not now what halls she possessed. The stars did not know where they had a station. The moon did not know what power he possessed.
Various editors have regarded this stanza as interpolated; Hoffory thinks it describes the northern summer night in which the sun does not set. Lines 3-5 are quoted by Snorri. In the manuscripts line 4 follows line 5. Regarding the sun and moon {footnote p. 5} as daughter and son of Mundilferi, cf. Vafthruthnismol, 23 and note, and Grimnismol, 37 and note.]
“The sun from the south” - in the far north, where the sun alternately does not set for months, nor rise for months, it can seem as though it is coming from a different direction than what we are used to here in the US.

Stanza 4

Konungsbók	Hauksbók	Combined	Gylfaginning + Variants
R 04	H 04	B 04
Adr bvrs synir	Aadr bors synir	Áðr Burs synir
bioðom um ypðo	bioðum of yptu	bjöðum um yppðu,
þeir er mið garð	þeir er meran	þeir er Miðgarð
moran scopo.	miðgarð skopu	mæran skópu.
sol scein suNan	sol skeinn sunnan	Sól skein sunnan
a salar steina	aa salar steina	á salar steina,
þa var grvnd groin	þa uar grund groin	þá var grund gróin
gronom lauki.	grænum lauki.	grœnum lauki.
Before Bor´s sons raised up heaven´s vault, they who the noble Midgard shaped. The sun shone from the south on the stones of the hall: then out of the ground grew green leeks.
Bur's sons: Othin, Vili, and Ve. Of Bur we know only that his wife was Bestla, daughter of Bolthorn; cf. Hovamol, 141. Vili and Ve are mentioned by name in the Eddic poems only in Lokasenna, 26. Mithgarth ("Middle Dwelling"): the world of men. Leeks: the leek was often used as the symbol of fine growth (cf. Guthrunarkvitha I, 17), and it was also supposed to have magic power (cf. Sigrdrifumol, 7).
Odin, Vili and Ve were the first Holy Triad or Holy Trinity. The children of Bergelmire, the giants, became aware of Buri, his son, Borr. They began waging war against the new race of Gods. War between these two races was inevitable because they represent the opposing forces of order and chaos. This titanic struggle lasted for eons. Neither race was able to gain the upper hand until Borr took Bestla as his wife and produced his three sons, Odin (spirit), Vili (will) and Ve (holy). There is an intricate symmetry to the force of Odin, Vili and Ve. Odin is the inspiration that creates an idea. Vili is the will that transforms an idea into reality. Ve is the sacred that gives individuality to the creation. The three must work together for creation to occur. The union between Borr and Bestla was between the beneficent natural forces of nature and discipline, thus creating a force that could counter the uncontrolled destructive forces of nature. With their assistance, the Gods were eventually able to defeat the giants. The Holy Triad or Holy Trinity, was able to end the war by slaying the most powerful of the frost giants, the great Ymir. As Ymir’s life was extinguished, his blood poured out of him to flood the Cosmos, producing a great deluge. The entire race of Froze or Rime giants perished in this flood, all except for two giants - Bergelmir and his wife. They survived the blood flood and eventually took up abode in Jotunheim. There they reproduced a new race of giants, who continued to feud with the Gods and sought vengeance for their defeat by them. The Gods or Aesir (pillars and supporters of the world), set about repairing the destruction that was inflicted upon the Cosmos by their great struggle with the giants. It was their nature to give order where there was only chaos. Borr’s sons decided to give shape and order to the corpse of the father of chaos, Ymir. They butchered his corpse and used its parts to construct the universe out of it. ~http://www.vrilology.org/in_the_beginning.htm

Stanza 3

Konungsbók	Hauksbók	Combined	Gylfaginning + Variants
R 03	H 03	B 03	Gg 4
Ar uar alda	Aar uar allda	Ár var alda	halda S
þa r er ymir bygði	þar er ymir bygði	þar er Ymir byggði,	þat (þar U) er ecki var SWTU
vara sandr ne ser	vara sandr ne sior	vara sandr né sær	varat - siár W ; sior U ; ser S
ne sualar uN ir	ne svalar unnir	né svalar unnir.	unnir SW , und ir U
iorð faNz eva	iorð fannz efa	Jörð fannsk æva	æfa W , eig i STU
ne upp himin	ne vpp himin n	né upphiminn,
gap uar giNvnga	gap var ginnvnga	gap var ginnunga,
eN gras hv ergi.	enn g ras ecki.	en gras hvergi.	gS S ; ecki STW
When time was young,
where Ymir dwelt,
was no sand, no sea,
nor cool waves;
earth existed not,
nor heaven above,
A chasm gaped,
and  no grass.
Ymir: the giant out of whose body the gods made the world; cf. Vafthruthnismol, 21. in this stanza as quoted in Snorri's Edda the first line runs: "Of old was the age ere aught there was." Yawning gap: this phrase, "Ginnunga-gap," is sometimes used as a proper name.
In the beginning, nothing existed. Can you imagine the concept of just NOTHING? My brain has a difficult time imagining that thought.

Stanza 2

Konungsbók	Hauksbók	Combined	Gylfaginning + Variants
R 02	H 02	B 02
Ec man iotna	Ek man iotna	Ek man jötna
ár um borna	aar v m borna	ár um borna,
þa e r fordo m mic	þa er forðu m mik	þá er forðum mik
fodda hofdo	fædda hofðv:	fœdda höfðu.
nio man æc hei ma	niu man ek heima	Níu man ek heima,	The R reading:
nío iviþi ur	niu i uidiur	níu íviðjur,	íviði
miot uið moraN	miotvið meran	mjötvið mæran,	is erroneous!
f yr mold neðan.	f yr molld neðan.	fyr mold neðan.
I remember Jötuns
born early on,
those who me of old
have reared.
nine worlds I remember,
nine in the wood,
the great measuring tree,
beneath the earth.
Nine worlds: the worlds of the gods (Asgarth), of the Wanes (Vanaheim, cf. stanza 21 and note), of the elves (Alfheim), of men (Mithgarth), of the giants (Jotunheim), of fire (Muspellsheim, cf. stanza 47 and note), of the dark elves (Svartalfaheim), of the dead (Niflheim), and presumably of the dwarfs (perhaps Nithavellir, cf. stanza 37 and note, but the ninth world is uncertain). The tree: the world-ash Yggdrasil, {footnote p. 4} symbolizing the universe; cf. Grimnismol, 29-35 and notes, wherein Yggdrasil is described at length.
Here we have our first depiction of Yggdrasil, the great world tree, and the nine realms of being. Odin is telling us of his memories, of the giants, and of his upbringing. Many people seem to forget that Odin himself was born of giants.. He is the grandson of Buri the first Æsir, and he is the son of the half-God, half-giant Bestla and Bor.

Stanza 1

Konungsbók	Hauksbók	Combined	Gylfaginning + Variants
R 01	H 01	B 01
Hliods bið ec	Hlioðs bið ek allar	Hljóðs bið ek allar
allar kindir	helgar kind ir	helgar kindir,
meiri & miNi	meiri ok min n i	meiri ok minni,
mavgo heimdalar	mogu hei mdallar	mögu Heimdallar.	H variant may be read as:
vildo at ec ualfa/þ r	villtu at ek vafodrs	Vildu at ek, Valföðr,	Vildu at ek Váföðrs
uel fyr telia	vel framm telia	vel fyr telja	vél fram telja,
forn spioll fíra	forn spioll fira	forn spjöll fira,
þa/ e r fremst u m man.	þau er ek fremz v m man.	þau er fremst um man.
For silence I pray
all children,
great and small,
sons of Heimdall
they will that I Valfather´s [Odin's]
deeds recount,
men´s ancient saws,
those that I best remember.
In the Rigsmál we are informed how Heimdall, under the name Rig, became the progenitor of the three orders of mankind.
As with all story tellings, the author is asking us to be still and listen, so that we may absorb what they are about to tell us. Knowledge is not gleaned when we are distracted by other things.

Welcome to the Voluspa

Welcome, traveler, seeker of knowledge, to Beast's Völuspá - The Prophecy of the Seeress. Join me as we travel through this collection of wisdom, and glean from it what we can!

Bellow's has written:
At the beginning of the collection in the Codex Regius stands the Voluspo, the most famous and important, as it is likewise the most debated, of all the Eddic poems. Another version of it is found in a huge miscellaneous compilation of about the year 1300, the Hauksbok, and many stanzas are included in the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson. The order of the stanzas in the Hauksbok version differs materially from that in the Codex Regius, and in the published editions many experiments have been attempted in further rearrangements. On the whole, how ever, and allowing for certain interpolations, the order of the stanzas in the Codex Regius seems more logical than any of the wholesale "improvements" which have been undertaken.

The general plan of the Voluspo is fairly clear. Othin, chief of the gods, always conscious of impending disaster and eager for knowledge, calls on a certain "Volva," or wise-woman, presumably bidding her rise from the grave. She first tells him of the past, of the creation of the world, the beginning of years, the origin of the dwarfs (at this point there is a clearly interpolated catalogue of dwarfs' names, stanzas 10-16), of the first man and woman, of the world-ash Yggdrasil, and of the first war, between the gods and the Vanir, or, in Anglicized form, the Wanes. Then, in stanzas 27-29, as a further proof of her wisdom, she discloses some of Othin's own secrets and the details of his search for knowledge. Rewarded by Othin for what she has thus far told (stanza 30), she then turns to the real prophesy, the disclosure of the final destruction of the gods. This final battle, in which fire and flood overwhelm heaven and earth as the gods fight with their enemies, is the great fact in Norse mythology; the phrase describing it, ragna rök, "the fate of the gods," has become familiar, by confusion with the word rökkr, "twilight," in the German Göterdämmerung. The wise-woman tells of the Valkyries who bring the slain warriors to support Othin and the other gods in the battle, of the slaying of Baldr, best and fairest of the gods, through the wiles of Loki, of the enemies of the gods, of the summons to battle on both sides, and of the mighty struggle, till Othin is slain, and "fire leaps high about heaven itself" (stanzas 31-58). But this is not all. A new and beautiful world is to rise on the ruins of the old; Baldr comes back, and "fields unsowed bear ripened fruit" (stanzas 59-66).

This final passage, in particular, has caused wide differences of opinion as to the date and character of the poem. That the poet was heathen and not Christian seems almost beyond dispute; there is an intensity and vividness in almost every stanza which no archaizing Christian could possibly have achieved. On the other hand, the evidences of Christian influence are sufficiently striking to outweigh the arguments of Finnur Jonsson, Müllenhoff and others who maintain that the Voluspo is purely a product of heathendom. The roving Norsemen of the tenth century, very few of whom had as yet accepted Christianity, were nevertheless in close contact with Celtic races which had already been converted, and in many ways the Celtic influence was strongly felt. It seems likely, then, that the Voluspo was the work of a poet living chiefly in Iceland, though possibly in the "Western Isles," in the middle of the tenth century, a vigorous believer in the old gods, and yet with an imagination active enough to be touched by the vague tales of a different religion emanating from his neighbor Celts.

How much the poem was altered during the two hundred years between its composition and its first being committed to writing is largely a matter of guesswork, but, allowing for such an obvious interpolation as the catalogue of dwarfs, and for occasional lesser errors, it seems quite needless to assume such great changes as many editors do. The poem was certainly not composed to tell a story with which its early hearers were quite familiar; the lack of continuity which baffles modern readers presumably did not trouble them in the least. It is, in effect, a series of gigantic pictures, put into words with a directness and sureness which bespeak the poet of genius. It is only after the reader, with the help of the many notes, has--familiarized him self with the names and incidents involved that he can begin to understand the effect which this magnificent poem must have produced on those who not only understood but believed it.

Each day for the next two months, we shall delve into this poem, stanza by stanza, to see what knowledge shared with the Old Gods we might claim for our own. Please feel free to comment, discuss, converse! This is a learning experience for all!