Theos-Talk Archives (September 1996 Message tt00012)

> Thank you for writing the English text.
>
> Is this text from Voluspa? And if so, then please tell me from
> what stanzas.
>
> I am trying to find the first three stanzas of Voluspa, in the
> version you have.
>
> The text you wrote can not be the first three stanzas of Voluspa.
> Please let me know about this before we continue with this
> subject.

Sveinn:

Maybe your version cuts off these first few stanzas, because I
have another version of the Voluspa in a book called THE MASKS OF
ODIN, (I think Nicholas mentioned this) and it begins:

> Here me, all ye holy kindred,
> Greater and lesser sons of Heimdal!
> You wish me to tell the ancient tales,
> O Father of seers, the oldest I know.

In my own scholarly version from the public library at UCLA this
verse is equivalent to the fifth verse of the Voluspa which I
shall repeat here.

> Silence I ask of the Sacred Folk,
> Silence of the kith and kin of Heimdal:
> At your will, Valfather, I shall well relate
> The old songs of men I remember best.

Since I have written previously the first three verses, which you
positively wish not to include in the Voluspa, you might like to
hear the one preceding verse left, the fourth:

> Of Heimdal, too, and his horn I know,
> Hidden under the holy tree;
> Down on it pours a precious stream

> (Sveinn) From Valfather's Pledge, Well, would you know more?

You known it is mentioned in THE MASKS OF ODIN that the Voluspa
is a part of the Eddas, it is possible there is some disagreement
as to where the "Sibyl's tale" begins, and besides doesn't
Shakespeare use the term Sibyl when referring to a witch? (I'm
just guessing at this.)

If you wish to see the verses I have beginning with my fifth
verse through my seventh verse, here they are:

> Silence I ask of the Sacred Folk,
> Silence of the kith and kin of Heimdal:
> At your will, Valfather, I shall well relate
> The old songs of men I remember best.
>
> I tell of Giants from times forgotten,
> Those who fed me in former days:
> Nine Worlds I can reckon, nine roots of the Tree,
> The wonderful Ash, way under the ground.
>
> When Ymir lived long ago
> Was no sand or sea, no surging saves,
> Nowhere was there earth nor heaven above,
> But a grinning gap and grass nowhere.

There that probably now agrees with what you have, right?

Yours in study,