They had no breath,
They had no mind,
Neither blood nor motion
Nor proper complexion.
Odin gave the breath,52
Hœnir gave the mind,
Lodur gave the blood
And befitting hues.
(Völuspa.)
Finally the Völva describes the end of the world.
Eastward sat the old one
In Jarnvid,53
And there bred
The brood of Fenrir;
Of them all
One becomes
The destroyer of the sun
In the shape of a Troll.
He54 is fed with the lives
Of death-fated men;
He reddens the seat of the gods
With red blood;
The sunshine becomes black
After the summers,
And all weather woe-begone.
Know ye all up to this and onward?
The herdsman of the Jötun woman,
The glad Egdir,
Sat there on a mound
And struck a harp,
A bright-red cock,
Called Fjalar,
Crowed near him
In the bird-wood.
Crowed for the Asar
Gullinkambi (golden-comb),
He rouses the warriors
At Herjafödr’s (host-father);
But another crows
Under the ground,
A dark red cock,55
In the halls of Hel.
Garm barks violently
Before the Gnipa cave;
The fetters will break
And the wolf will run;
She (the Völva) knows many tales.
I see further forward
To the doom of the powers
The dark doom of the gods.
Brothers will fight
And become each other’s slayers;
The sons of sisters will
Break blood ties.
It goes hard in the world,
There is much whoredom,
An age of axes, an age of swords;
Shields are cleft;
An age of winds, an age of wolves,
Ere the world sinks;
No man will spare
Another man.
The sons of Mimir are moving
But the end draws near,
By the sound of the ancient
Gjallarhorn.
Heimdall blows loud,
The horn is aloft;
Odin talks with
The head of Mimir.
Shakes the standing
Ash Yggdrasil;
The old tree groans,
And the Jötun (Loki) breaks loose;
All are terrified56
In the roads of Hel
Before the kinsman of Surt
Swallows it.
How is it with the Asar?
How is it with the Alfar?
All Jötunheim rumbles,
The Asar are at the Thing;
The Dvergar moan
Before the stone doors,
The wise ones of the rock wall57
Know ye all up to this and onward?
Now Garm barks loud
Before Gnipa cave;
The fetters will break,
And the wolf will run.
Hrym58 drives from the east,
Holds his shield before him.
The Jörmungand59 writhes
In Jötun wrath;
The serpent lashes the waves,
And the eagle screams;
The pale beak tears the corpses;
Naglfar60 is loosened.
A keel (a ship) comes from the east,
The men of Muspell
Will come across the sea,
But Loki is the steerer;61
All the monsters
Go with the wolf,
The brother of Býleist (Loki)
Is in the train.
Surt comes from the south
With the switch-harm (fire);
The sun of the gods
Flashes from his sword;
Rocks clash,
The Jötun women stagger;
Men walk the road of Hel;
Heaven is rent asunder.
Then comes the second62
Sorrow of Hlin,
When Odin goes
To fight the wolf;
And the bright slayer
Of Beli63 against Surt;
There will fall
The love of Frigg (Odin).
Now Garm barks loud
Before Gnipa-cave;
The fetters will break,
And the wolf will run.
Then comes the great
Son of Sigfödr (father of victory)
Vidar to slay,
The beast of carrion.64
With his hand he lets
His sword pierce
The heart of the Jötun’s son,65
Then his father (Odin) is avenged.66
Then comes the famous
Son of Hlodyn (Thor);
Odin’s son
Goes to fight the serpent;
Midgard’s defender (Thor)
Slays him in