Cookies on our website

We use cookies on this website, mainly to provide a secure browsing experience but also to collect statistics on how the website is used. You can find out more about the cookies we set, the information we store and how we use it on the cookies page.

Continue

skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

Menu Search

Fragments — Bragi FragIII

Bragi inn gamli Boddason

Margaret Clunies Ross 2017, ‘ Bragi inn gamli Boddason, Fragments’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 53. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1132> (accessed 26 April 2024)

 

1.
Gefjun dró frá Gylfa
glǫð djúprǫðul ǫðla,
svát af rennirauknum
rauk, Danmarkar auka.
Bôru øxn ok átta
ennitungl, þars gingu
fyr vinjeyjar víðri
valrauf, fjǫgur haufuð.
 
‘Gefjun drew from Gylfi, glad, a deep disk of inherited land [ISLAND = Sjælland], Denmark’s addition [= Sjælland], so that steam rose from the swift-moving draught animals. The oxen bore eight forehead-moons [EYES] and four heads, where they went before the wide plunder-rift of the meadow-island [= Sjælland]. ’
2.
Hinn, es varp á víða
vinda ǫndurdísar
of manna sjǫt margra
munnlaug fǫður augum.
 
‘The one who threw the eyes of the father of the ski-dís <minor female deity> [= Skaði > = Þjazi] into the wide hand-basin of winds [SKY/HEAVEN] above the dwellings of many men.’
3.
Vel hafið yðrum eykjum
aptr, Þrívalda, haldit
simbli sumbls of mærum,
sundrkljúfr níu hǫfða.
 
‘You have well driven back your draught animals, cleaver asunder of the nine heads of Þrívaldi <giant> [= Þórr], above the famous drink-provider of the drinking party [= Ægir (ægir ‘ocean’)].’
4.
Þars, sem lofðar líta
lung váfaðar Gungnis.
 
‘It is there as men see the longship of the swinger of Gungnir <Óðinn’s spear> [= Óðinn > HORSE = Sleipnir].’
5.
Eld of þák af jǫfri
ǫlna bekks við drykkju
(þat gaf) Fjǫlnis fjalla
(með fulli mér stillir).
 
‘I received from the prince fire of the bench of mackerels [SEA > GOLD] for the drink of the Fjǫlnir <= Óðinn> of the mountains [GIANT = Suttungr > POETRY]; the ruler gave me that with a toast.’
6.
Þann áttak vin verstan
vazt- rǫdd en mér baztan
Ála -undirkúlu
óniðraðan þriðja.
 
‘I had that friend, the third one, blameless, worst to the voice of the Áli <sea-king> of the fishing ground-under-knob [ROCK > GIANT > GOLD], but best to me.’
Close

Log in

This service is only available to members of the relevant projects, and to purchasers of the skaldic volumes published by Brepols.
This service uses cookies. By logging in you agree to the use of cookies on your browser.

Close

Information about a text: poem, sequence of stanzas, or prose work

This page is used for different resources. For groups of stanzas such as poems, you will see the verse text and, where published, the translation of each stanza. These are also links to information about the individual stanzas.

For prose works you will see a list of the stanzas and fragments in that prose work, where relevant, providing links to the individual stanzas.

Where you have access to introduction(s) to the poem or prose work in the database, these will appear in the ‘introduction’ section.

The final section, ‘sources’ is a list of the manuscripts that contain the prose work, as well as manuscripts and prose works linked to stanzas and sections of a text.