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

Þórr’s fishing — Bragi ÞórrIII

Bragi inn gamli Boddason

Margaret Clunies Ross 2017, ‘ Bragi inn gamli Boddason, Þórr’s fishing’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 46. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3094> (accessed 25 April 2024)

 

1.
Þat erumk sent, at snemma
sonr Aldafǫðrs vildi
afls við úri þafðan
jarðar reist of freista.
 
‘It is conveyed to me that the son of mankind’s father [= Óðinn > = Þórr] soon wanted to try his strength against the twisted thing of the earth [= Miðgarðsormr], pounded by water.’
2.
Vaðr lá Viðris arfa
vilgi slakr, es rakðisk,
á Eynæfis ǫndri,
Jǫrmungandr at sandi.
 
‘The fishing line of Viðrir’s <= Óðinn’s> heir [= Þórr] lay not at all slack on the ski of Eynæfir <sea-king> [SHIP], when Jǫrmungandr <= Miðgarðsormr> unwound himself on the sand.’
3.
Hamri fórsk í hœgri
hǫnd, þás allra landa,
œgir Ǫflugbarða,
endiseiðs of kenndi.
 
‘The terrifier of Ǫflugbarði <giant> [= Þórr] lifted the hammer in his right hand, when he recognised the boundary-saithe of all lands [= Miðgarðsormr].’
4.
Ok borðróins barða
brautar hringr inn ljóti
á haussprengi Hrungnis
harðgeðr neðan starði.
 
‘And the ugly ring of the road of the side-rowed ship [SEA > = Miðgarðsormr] glared from below, defiant, at the skull-splitter of Hrungnir <giant> [= Þórr].’
5.
Þás forns Litar flotna
á fangboða ǫngli
hrøkkviáll of hrokkinn
hekk Vǫlsunga drekku.
 
‘When the coiling eel of the drink of the Vǫlsungar [POISON > = Miðgarðsormr] hung coiled up on the fishing hook of the wrestling-challenger of the followers of ancient Litr <giant> [GIANTS > = Þórr].’
6.
Vildit vrǫngum ofra
vágs byrsendir œgi,
hinns mjótygil máva
mœrar skar fyr Þóri.
 
‘The wind-sender of the sea [GIANT = Hymir] did not want to raise up the twisted terrifier, he who cut the slender string of the marshland of seagulls [SEA > FISHING LINE] for Þórr.’
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.