Freyja spake:
1. "Maiden, awake! | wake thee, my friend,
My sister Hyndla, | in thy hollow cave!
Already comes darkness, | and ride must we
To Valhall to seek | the sacred hall.
2. The favor of Heerfather | seek we to find,
To his followers gold | he gladly gives;
To Hermoth gave he | helm and mail-coat,
And to Sigmund he gave | a sword as gift.
3. Triumph to some, | and treasure to others,
To many wisdom | and skill in words,
Fair winds to the sailor, | to the singer his art,
And a manly heart | to many a hero.
4. Thor shall I honor, | and this shall I ask,
That his favor true | mayst thou ever find;
. . . . . . . . . .
Though little the brides | of the giants he loves.
5. From the stall now | one of thy wolves lead forth,
And along with my boar | shalt thou let him run;
For slow my boar goes | on the road of the gods,
And I would not weary | my worthy steed."
[1. Freyja: The names of the speakers do not appear in the manuscripts. On Freyja cf. Voluspo, 21 and note; Skirnismol, introductory prose and note;
Lokasenna, introductory prose and note. As stanzas 9-10 show, Ottar has made a wager of his entire inheritance with Angantyr regarding the relative
loftiness of their ancestry, and by rich offerings (Hyndla hints at less commendable methods) has induced Freyja to assist him in establishing his
genealogy. Freyja, having turned Ottar for purposes of disguise into a boar, calls on the giantess Hyndla ("She-Dog") to aid her. Hyndla does not
appear elsewhere in the poems.
2. Heerfather: Othin; cf. Voluspo, 30. Hermoth: mentioned in the Prose Edda as a son of Othin who is sent to Hel to ask for the return of the slain
Baldr. Sigmund: according to the Volsungasaga Sigmund was the son of Volsung, and hence Othin's great-great-grandson (note that Wagner eliminates all
the intervening generations by the simple expedient of using Volsung's name as one of Othin's many appellations). Sigmund alone was
able to draw from the tree the sword which a mysterious stranger (Othin, of course) had thrust into it (compare the first act of Wagner's Die Walküre).
3. Sijmons suggests that this stanza may be an interpolation.
4. No lacuna after line 2 is indicated in the manuscript. Editors have attempted various experiments in rearranging this and the following stanza.
5. Some editors, following Simrock, assign this whole stanza to Hyndla; others assign to her lines 3-4. Giving the entire stanza to Freyja makes better
sense than any other arrangement, but is dependent on changing the manuscript's "thy" in line 3 to "my", as suggested by Bugge. The boar on which Freyja
rides ("my worthy steed") is, of course, Ottar.]
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Freyja kvað:
1. "Vaki mær meyja, vaki mín vina,
Hyndla systir, er í helli býr;
nú er rökkr rökkra, ríða vit skulum
til Valhallar ok til vés heilags.
2. Biðjum Herjaföðr í hugum sitja,
hann geldr ok gefr gull verðungu;
gaf hann Hermóði hjalm ok brynju,
en Sigmundi sverð at þiggja.
3. Gefr hann sigr sumum, en sumum aura,
mælsku mörgum ok mannvit firum;
byri gefr hann brögnum, en brag skaldum,
gefr hann mannsemi mörgum rekki.
4. Þórr mun hon blóta, þess mun hon biðja,
at hann æ við þik einart láti;
þó er hánum ótítt við jötuns brúðir.
5. Nú taktu ulf þinn einn af stalli,
lát hann renna með runa mínum."
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