Völuspá

Источник: Pen and Pencil Sketches of Faröe and Iceland. Andrew James Symington. London, Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1862.

 

In the “Völuspá”^[1] from the older Edda, we have a sublime description of chaos; of creation; an account of a period of strife, crime, and suffering; dire conflicts between the powers of good and evil; of the destruction of the world of Odin and the dissolution and conflagration of the universe; of the Regnarök or twilight of the Gods; of the renovated world, the descent of Baldur the Good, the punishment of the wicked, and the happiness of the good in Gimlé or Heaven. From this poem – the most remarkable in the whole range of Scandinavian mytho-cosmogony – the following verses are extracted:

 

“It was time’s morning

When Ymer lived.

There was no sand, no sea;

No cooling billows;

Earth there was none,

No lofty heaven;

Only the Gulph of Ginunga,

But no grass.

 

*        *        *

 

The sun knew not

Where was his dwelling;

The stars knew not

That they had a firmament;

The moon knew not

What powers she possessed.

 

*        *        *

 

The tree Yggdrasil

Bears a sorer burden

Than men know of.

Above the stags bite it;

On its sides age rots it;

Nighögg gnaws below.

 

*        *        *

 

There saw she wade

In the heavy streams

Men – foul perjurers,

And murderers.

 

*        *        *

 

Brothers slay brothers:

Sisters' children

Shed each other's blood.

Hard is the world;

Sensual sin grows huge.

There are sword-ages, axe-ages,

Earth-cleaving cold;

Storm-ages, murder-ages,

Till the world falls dead,

And men no longer spare

Or pity one another.

 

*        *        *

 

Mimer's sons play,

But the world is kindled

By the ancient

Gjallarborn.

Loud blows Heimdall,

His sound is in the air:

Odin talks

With the head of Mimer.

 

Quivers then Yggdrasil,

The strong-rooted ash:

Rustles the old tree

When Jötun gives way.

All things tremble

In the realms of Hel,

Till Surtur's son

Swallows up Odin.

 

Garmer he shouts

By the Gnipa-hall

The band must burst

And the wolf fly.

 

Hrymer drives eastward,

Bears his shield before him;

Jormungand welters

In giant fierceness.

The waves thunder;

The eagles scream;

Death rends the corpses

And Nagelfar gives way.

 

Köl hies eastward;

Come must Muspel's

Folk to the sea.

Loke rows afar;

All the children of madness

Follow the wolf,

Bileist's brother

Journeyeth with them.

 

Surtur fares southward.

With flickering flames

From his sword

God's sun flashes.

Break the stone mountains;

The weird women flee,

Men throng Hel's dread roads,

And Heaven is rent."

 

Then Surtur flings fire over the world.

 

"The sun grows dark.

Earth sinks in the sea.

From heaven vanish

The lustrous stars.

High from the flames

Rolls the reek;

High play the fires

'Gainst heaven itself.

 

*        *        *

 

Up, sees she come

Yet once more,

The earth from the sea,

Gloriously green.

 

*        *        *

 

Then comes the Mighty One

To the great Judgment –

The great above all –

He who guides all things.

Judgments he utters;

Strifes he appeaseth;

Laws He ordaineth;

To flourish for ever.

 

*        *        *

 

In Gimlé the lofty

There shall the hosts

Of the virtuous dwell,

And through all ages

Taste of deep gladness."

 

Примечания:

[1] Völu-spá or spae, the Prophesy – wisdom, oracle, or mystic song – of Volu (Volu is the genitive of Vola). Scoticê, Vala's spae, as in the word spae-wife. One of these Valor, or Northern sybills, whom Odin consulted in Neifelhem, when found in the tomb where she had lain for ages, is represented as saying –

"I was snowed over with snows,

And beaten with rains,

And drenched with the dews;

Dead have I long been."