142. Runes shalt thou find, | and fateful signs,
That the king of singers colored,
And the mighty gods have made;
Full strong the signs, | full mighty the signs
That the ruler of gods doth write.

143. Othin for the gods, | Dain for the elves,
And Dvalin for the dwarfs,
Alsvith for giants | and all mankind,
And some myself I wrote.

144. Knowest how one shall write, |
knowest how one shall rede?
Knowest how one shall tint, | knowest how one makes trial?
Knowest how one shall ask, | knowest how one shall offer?
Knowest how one shall send, | knowest how one shall sacrifice?

145. Better no prayer | than too big an offering,
By thy getting measure thy gift;
Better is none | than too big a sacrifice,
. . . . . . . . . .
So Thund of old wrote | ere man's race began,
Where he rose on high | when home he came

[142. This and the following stanza belong together, and in many editions appear as a single stanza. They presumably come from some lost poem on the authorship of the runes. Lines 2 and 3 follow line 4 in the manuscript; the transposition was suggested by Bugge. The king of singers: Othin. The magic signs (runes) were commonly carved in wood, then colored red.

143. Dain and Dvalin: dwarfs; cf. Voluspo, 14, and note. Dain, however, may here be one of the elves rather than the dwarf of. that name. The two names also appear together in Grimnismol, 33, where they are applied to two of the four harts that nibble at the topmost twigs of Yggdrasil. Alsvith ("the All Wise") appears nowhere else as a giant's name. Myself: Othin. We have no further information concerning the list of those who wrote the runes for the various races, and these four lines seem like a confusion of names in the rather hazy mind of some reciter.

144. This Malahattr stanza appears to be a regular religious formula, concerned less with the runes which one "writes" and "tints" (cf. stanza 79) than with the prayers which one "asks" and the sacrifices which one "offers" and "sends." Its origin is wholly uncertain, but it is clearly an interpolation here. In the manuscript the phrase "knowest?" is abbreviated after the first line.]

142. Rúnar munt ţú finna ok ráđna stafi,
mjök stóra stafi, mjök stinna stafi,
er fáđi fimbulţulr ok
gerđu ginnregin
ok reist hroftr rögna.

143. Óđinn međ ásum, en fyr alfum Dáinn,
Dvalinn ok dvergum fyrir,
Ásviđr jötnum fyrir,
ek reist sjalfr sumar.

144. Veistu, hvé rísta skal? Veistu, hvé ráđa skal?
Veistu, hvé fáa skal? Veistu, hvé freista skal?
Veistu, hvé biđja skal? Veistu, hvé blóta skal?
Veistu, hvé senda skal? Veistu, hvé sóa skal?

145. Betra er óbeđit en sé ofblótit,
ey sér til gildis gjöf;
betra er ósent en sé ofsóit.
Svá Ţundr of reist fyr ţjóđa rök,
ţar hann upp of reis, er hann aftr of kom.