Canto VIII Thor visits the giant Hymir
Thor, though vex’d in mind, his anger
Prudently resolv’d to hide;
Thus to be the butt of mock’ry
To the giants gall’d his pride:
Vengeful thoughts his heart corroding
Urge him ’gainst that lawless crew;
Down to Ocean’s deepest cavern
He would fain his foes pursue.
Now to Odin’s throne ascending
In his brazen armour clad,
Low with filial reverence bending,
To Alfader thus he said:
“Force ’gainst giants naught availeth;
Wisdom too must bear its part:
Father! from thy cup of science
Grant one drop to cheer my heart!”
Quaffing now from wisdom’s beaker,
New conceptions fill his brain:
Naught this time to Lok his comrade
Of his plan will Thor explain.
Sole his bold career pursuing,
Think! what joy his bosom feels,
Proudly Dovre’s lofty pine-tops
Crushing with his chariot wheels.
Now the rocky cave approaching,
Near the vast white-foaming sea,
Where for ages Midgard’s serpent
Coil’d amidst the sea-weed lay;
When he view’d it put in motion
Treach’rously the billow blue;
Swell’d his heart with deep emotion;
Glances proud towards heaven he threw.
Monster vile! thou shall no longer
(Thus in thought discourse he holds)
The affrighted earth encircle
With thy venom-swelter’d folds.
Thou shalt cease thy hateful pastime,
Hurling seamen down to Ran:
Thor shall crush thee; from thy fury
Thor shall free the race of man.
Now the god assumes the figure
Of a youthful rustic clown:
Where the whirlwind eddies howling,
There he throws his helmet down.
Like a rock well planed and hollow’d,
Crested with a grove of pine,
Thus the brazen helm and horse-hair
Glitt’ring in the sunbeam shine.
Now his beard he doff’d, and threw it
On a rock; a bush to view,
There it lay: himself moved onward,
Changed to swain in kirtle blue.
Dext’rous was the transformation;
Who could now the Asar know?
Heimdal view’d the change with pleasure,
Perch’d on Bifrost’s radiant bow.
Giant Hymir’s rocky dwelling
Thor proceeded now to find,
With red cheeks and locks so yellow
Streaming ’fore the morning wind:
Round his waist his belt fast girded
Show’d like strip of crimson wool:
Thus the Asa, arm’d with cunning,
Giants shall no more befool.
Like an axe he bore his hammer,
Trudging o’er the dusty plain;
Scarce can he disguise his fierceness,
Scarce his vengeful thoughts restrain.
Entering in a gloomy cavern
Near the rustling waterfall,
In his morning dream indulging,
There he found the giant tall.
Crown’d with dusky hair, his forehead
Seem’d a sea-weed-cover’d rock;
Hard his loins and tough his fibres,
Like the trunk and roots of oak:
In his mouth, which wide extended
Show’d like cavern vast and dark,
Glared three rows of frightful grinders
Like the teeth of rav’nous shark.
Near this cave a fertile meadow
Varies with the rugged scene:
Flowers of divers hues contrasting
With the dew-clad grass so green:
Lambkins frisk and bleat delighted,
Nibbling leaves from ev’ry thorn;
There in richest clover revel
Oxen fat with crumpled horn.
Now the giant woke, and casting
Round his eyes of fiery hue,
In a corner Thor discovered,
Like a weak-limb’d lad to view.
“Ha! who into Hymir’s dwelling
Rashly dares to force his way?
Wretched stripling! for thy boldness
Thou with loss of life shall pay.”
Then the stripling, nothing daunted:
“Here I stand with conscience clear;
Time doth all conditions level;
Nought is to be gain’d by fear.
Though before I never trembled,
Now I well may feel alarm:
Sure, a chief so strong and mighty
Will not deign a boy to harm?
“Much doth it become a giant
Magnanimity to show!
Nought would it, O chief! avail thee,
Should my blood in torrents flow:
Why then should I feel down-hearted?
Thou wouldst but despise me more;
Thinkst thou, I have left my courage
At my father’s cottage-door?
“Pale to turn and fear exhibit
Baseness proves, and naught avails;
See the hedgehog, who a pris’ner
In his bristly castle quails:
Naught he deems himself in safety,
Though his quills erect he rears;
Still to peace and joy a stranger,
E’en the slightest noise he fears.
“Not so acts the little sparrow,
Far more delicate and weak;
Though not cased in mail, in ev’ry
Cleft and nook he shows his beak;
Mark, his bold, advent’rous spirit
Ne’er from danger keeps aloof;
Frank and free, he often perches
Twitt’ring on the peasant’s roof.
“Here I stand, a simple sparrow,
In the giant’s dark abode;
Sure the mighty eagle will not
Deign to shed a sparrow’s blood!
Coarsest food, naught else I ask thee;
Crumbs, that from thy table fall;
And whene’er thou goest a fishing,
I will aid thy net to haul.”
Then the giant, loudly laughing,
Stretch’d his lip from ear to ear:
“Him, who thus implores my pity
Slay I will not; do not fear!”
Much he laugh’d to hear a story
Told in such a simple strain,
And his laugh so wild and boist’rous
Made the forest ring again.
Then said he: “In th’ early morning
Rudely blows the northern blast;
Here thou’rt from its force protected,
Couch’d within this cavern vast.
But when sitting in the fragile
Bark on the tempestuous sea,
If thy sprightliness and courage
There stand by thee, we shall see.”
“Since my nerve thou doubtest, giant,”
Thor replied, “No more delay!
Put me quickly on the trial;
Hast thou any bait, I pray?”
“Friend, the bait that best will suit thee
In my garden thou wilt find;
There doth many a caterpillar
Round the bushes crawl and wind.
“But if on the leaf thou findest
None, of other means I know:
Take thy spade and dig yon barrow,
Worms enough thou’lt find, I trow!
Take thy shirt-pin off and bend it;
Lo! a fish-hook hast thou strait.
Then thou art prepared for fishing;
I myself use eels for bait.”
“Ha! the worm shall not escape me,”
Angry Thor replied, “I know;
Round my arm in anguish writhing,
It shall perish by my blow.
Come, no more delay! allow me
But to take what suits me best.”
“Go and do so,” said the giant;
Off the stripling sets in haste;
To the meadow straight he hies him,
Where the giant’s cattle stood;
There full butt a bull ferocious
Barr’d his way in threat’ning mood.
Now with levell’d horns he rushes
On the youth his rage to wreak;
Thor, its head with both hands seizing,
Tore it from the bleeding neck!
With the head upon his shoulder
Of the proudly-horned bull,
Thor came running ’cross the meadow,
High in glee, of courage full.
With the greatest ease he bore it,
And he needs must run in haste,
For the giant had already
Hoisted in his boat the mast.
When the giant on the shoulder
Of the youth the bull’s head view’d,
Loud he praised his strength and courage,
Much admired his hardihood.
Launching now the sloop for fishing,
Each the oar with ardour plies,
While the keel with noise and creaking
Through the dark blue billow flies.
Then thought Aukthor: To the serpent
Could I once approach as nigh,
So that I could thrust my Miölner
Into his ferocious eye,
This would give me greater pleasure,
Than to hear the clash of arms,
Or to gaze in proud Valhalla
On the bright Valkyrior’s charms.
All the world’s distress and mis’ry39
From that serpent fell proceeds:
Couch’d in ambush, on the vitals
Of th’ affrighted earth he feeds:
From his fangs all dire diseases
He to plague mankind distils;
And his venom in vast globules
Sea and land with havock fills.
When a man by ling’ring sickness
Tortured, feels th’ approach of death;
When he, during life’s last struggle,
Faint and fev’rish pants for breath;
When the wife reads in her husband’s
Sunken eye his last farewell;
Then his scales the serpent shaking
Hisses with enjoyment fell.
When the mother views with anguish
At her breast her dying child,
Which but lately, like an apple,
Blooming grew in autumn mild;
When the child will suck no longer,
When life’s strength is vanish’d quite;
Joyous then the serpent rises,
Loudly hissing in the night.
When man’s brain in death is frozen,
Loud he testifies his joy;
Shakes his scales, when from the topmast
Falls the luckless sailor boy.
When a constant swain his darling
Maiden on the pyre beholds,
Foams the ocean, where the serpent
Coils itself in endless folds.
All the serpents foul and frightful,
That infest the lab’ring earth,
Are engender’d by that monster
From the froth it vomits forth:
From it springs the fatal boa
On the distant southern shores,
Which insatiate still with hunger
Oft the biggest ox devours.
Now this snake in motion spiral
Twines itself the trees around;
Now to catch the heedless cattle,
Steals along the swampy ground.
Those of lesser growth with equal
Malice their bright hues display,
And with eyes deceitful gleaming
Askur’s hapless offspring slay.
Beautiful with rings encircled
Are their skins like flowers to view,
Vying oft in brilliant colour
With the rose and violet’s hue:
Vapours poisonous exuding
Under hedges oft they lie;
And the birds upon the branches
Fascinate with magic eye.
Fenris certainly is frightful,
Friend of the malignant night;
Oft he hurls men down to Helheim,
From the steep cliff’s dizzy height:
Oft he guides the midnight robber,
Steel excites him to employ,
And whene’er the robber murders,
Fenris howls with frantic joy.
’Gainst the forest-king the lion
He the tiger fell begot:
Formerly the bear suck’d honey,
Guileless in his mossy grot.
Next engender’d he th’ hyæna,
Lynx, and fox, to plunder given;
And ’gainst these the bear and lion
Are to endless contest driven.
Fenris, when a wounded body
He perceives at midnight hour,
Makes it carrion; but this serpent
Hath a far more dang’rous power:
I will, therefore, quick destroy it;
Man shall cease to be its prey:
Thor shall Askur’s race deliver
From their fiercest enemy.
Blest with health and strength to Freya40
Shall they mount to realms on high!
And when they become too numerous,
Let them fight and bravely die!
They should ne’er give way to hatred,
Even where the sword decides:
Wrath becomes not gallant warriors,
Whom the voice of honour guides.
They shall move in ranks to battle.
No sea-serpent cause them fear;
There like merry youths and lusty,
Enter on their bright career:
Manfully rush on each other,
Wave the sword, the pennon spread,
And in fair and open combat
Joy their generous blood to shed.
Then when blood streams forth in torrents
Thor in arms shall tread the sky,
And ’midst thunder’s crash and lightning
Summon them to Valhall high:
There admitted ’mongst the Asar
Shall they quaff delicious mead,
While with heavenly harpings Bragur
Chaunts aloud each glorious deed.
Thus the Asa thought, and onward
’Gan to row with all his might;
With his oar he made the billow
Fly before him foaming white.
Fired with anger, he continued
On with furious zeal to row:
Streams of brine in spray dissolving
Down his back and shoulders flow.
Now the boat half fill’d with water,
Giant Hymir cried in wrath,
“Hold! I bid thee! row no longer!
We shall swamp, and perish both.”
“Nay,” said Thor, “let us go farther!
Soon we’ll make a glorious cast;”
But the giant stamp’d with passion,
Leaning ’gainst the quiv’ring mast.
“If thou rowest any further,”
Said the giant, “we shall reach
Just the spot, where Jormundgardur
His enormous length doth stretch.”
“As for me, I fear no serpents,”
Thor replied, the fisher good;
“Boiling wave and howling tempest
Only serve to cool my blood.”
Now he lifts with all his vigour
Up the giant’s anchor vast,
Fixes the bull’s head upon it,
To his belt then makes it fast:
One end fasten’d to his body,
Now it serves him as a line;
Overboard he throws the anchor,
Trusting to his skill divine.