Vafþrúðnismál
Vafþrúðnismál (
Structure
The poem consists of 55 stanzas in total, which are composed in a
Synopsis
The lay commences with Odin asking advice and directions of Frigg as to whether it would be wise to seek out the hall of Vafþrúðnir to compete with the all-wise jötunn in a contest of knowledge. Frigg counsels against this course of action, saying that Vafþrúðnir is the most powerful one she knows. Nevertheless Odin continues with his quest.
On arriving at Vafþrúðnir's hall, Odin seeks to test Vafþrúðnir's wisdom through the classic mechanism of a wisdom contest. Vafþrúðnir's response is to accept the wanderer in his hall and only allow him to leave alive if Odin proves to be wiser. Odin, a master of dissimulation, attempts to pass himself off as Gagnráðr (trans. "victory"), and beseeches the traditional hospitality which should be afforded to wayfarers. Vafþrúðnir, wrong-footed, invites him in and to seat himself. A game of riddling then ensues between the pair.
During the course of stanza 19, Vafþrúðnir was unwise enough to wager his head in the case of defeat: victory for Odin will result in his death. In stanza 55, at the conclusion of the contest, Vafþrúðnir is obliged to capitulate to Odin's cunning when Odin asks him what Odin whispered in Baldr's ear prior to Baldr's body being placed on the funerary ship, a question to which only Odin knows the answer; it is a rule of the wisdom contest that questions could only be asked to which the questioner knew the answer and so it is at this point that Vafþrúðnir recognizes his guest for who he is:
- You alone know that, what long ago
- You said in the ears of your son.
- I doomed myself when I dared to tell
- What fate will befall the gods,
- And staked my wit against the wit of Odin,
- Ever the wisest of all.
- Vafþrúðnismál 55, translated by Auden and Taylor
References
- ^ Orchard 1997, p. 170.
- ^ Norse Mythology A to Z p.111
Bibliography
- ISBN 978-0-304-34520-5.
Further reading
- Jakobsson, Ármann (2008). "A contest of cosmic fathers: God and giant in Vafþrúðnismál". Neophilologus. 92 (2): 263–277. S2CID 162129001.
- Vafþrúðnismál, T. W. Machen (ed.), Turnhout, 2008, Brepola Publishers, ISBN 978-0-88844-561-2
- McGillivray, Andrew. Influences of Pre-Christian Mythology and Christianity on Old Norse Poetry: A Narrative Study of Vafþrúðnismál. Northern Medieval World. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2018. ISBN 9781580443357
External links
- Vafþrúðnismál English translation by Benjamin Thorpe, along with the Old Norse version.
- Vafþrúðnismál Sophus Bugge's edition of the manuscript text
- Vafþrúðnismál Guðni Jónsson's edition of the text with normalized spelling
- MyNDIR (My Norse Digital Image Repository) Illustrations of Vafþrúðnismál from manuscripts and early print books.