Theos-Talk Archives (September 1996 Message tt00005)

Sveinn and I would like to discuss the Voluspa here on
theos-talk. If anyone else wants to join in, they should feel
free to do so.

There are only three exchanges so far, beginning with my own
first letter to Sveinn which follows:

Hi. I'm not writing this on the discussion list, because you
might like to have sole control of the introduction to the
Voluspa. I've been studying and think that I noticed some places
in the text where a change in race might be indicated.

I noticed that the Voluspa takes us through the existence of
seven races if we assign a new race every time we read something
like "The High Gods gathered in council."

This exact sentence occurs twice in the text and then a slightly
different version, "Then from the host three came, Great,
merciful, from the God's home."

and the next time

> The Gods hastened to their Hall of Judgement, Sat in council to
> decide whether

a stanza in between, and

> The Gods hastened to their Hall of Judgement, Sat in council to
> discover who

6th time:

> What of the Gods? What of the Elves? Gianthome groans, the Gods
> are in council,

7th time:

> Now death is the portion of doomed men, Red with blood the
> buildings of Gods,

or

[Now, I also have this text in Icelandic and the words
"rau um dreyra" (I believe this would be translated buildings of
Gods) might not be as satisfactory as this later reference -

> At Ithervale the Aesire meet:

but whichever 7th race reference we choose, do we have a change
in the Voluspa at these points that could be credited to a change
in the race of men?