Since all of last week’s toasts were to the gods, this week I present toasts to ancestors and heroes. There are three of them, and each toast is two stanzas of ljóðaháttr.
A Toast to the Ancestors
Hail the ancestors
of elder times,
those famous folk and heroes.
They laid for our lives
the layers in the well —
the might and main of ørlög!
Today we do
our duty to them:
remembering well their works.
A fimbul full-horn
to those folk we raise.
Hail to our honorable ancestors!
Today I present four more short sumbel toasts, one each to Thor, Tyr, Heimdall, and Freyja. Each toast is two stanzas of ljóðaháttr. The spellings have all been fully anglicized.
A Toast to Thor
Hail Thor,
thunder’s wielder,
Asgard’s chosen champion;
that bane of etins,
and best of warriors
is father to Modi and Magni.
He slew Hrungnir
and hammered Thrym
with peerless might and main.
For warding well
this world of Midgard,
Hail to thunderous Thor!
I now present an audio recording of my poem The Mead Quest, which is a short poetic rendering of Óðin’s winning of Óðrerir, the poetic mead. For aspiring skalds in modern Asatru, this tale is perhaps the most important part of the mythology.
Here is the file of me reciting the poem: Eirik Westcoat – The Mead Quest
Enjoy! Feel free to share the file. For details, see the Creative Commons link below.
This post is:
Copyright © 2013 Eirik Westcoat.
All rights reserved.
The linked audio file of The Mead Quest is:
Copyright © 2013 Eirik Westcoat.
Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives License.
It is time for another lore poem. This one is not a narrative like The Six Treasures or The Mead Quest. Instead, it is a synthesis of lore on Valhalla that appears in the Poetic Edda (mostly the Grímnismál) and Prose Edda (various places).
It is written as ten stanzas of fornyrðislag. (Only the first stanza is prior to the break.) It is not anglicized at all, except for the word Valhalla. (The proper Old Norse form would be Valhöll.) A short note on an aspect of composition: the semi-riddle nature of the poem is intentional. I use various bynames of Óðinn prior to the second-to-last line, and I avoid using the name Valhalla itself until the very last word of the poem.
A spell of the lore
I speak to you now
by pouring Hropt’s
powerful drink.
I sing of that hall
high on the Tree;
to warriors dead
‘tis a welcome sight.
It is time for some more calls to the gods and other wights; it was in late November that I last posted some. Like the previous ones, these calls are also two stanzas of ljóðaháttr. Today I’m presenting calls to Thor, the Elves, the Aesir, and the Vanir. (The astute and well-read may notice some Dumezilian trifunctional aspects adapted into the last two.)
As may or may not be thought appropriate for a certain secular holiday, I present a short poem about the betrothal of Freyr and Gerd. It would not be wrong to think of it as a very short poetic summary of the Skírnismál from the Poetic Edda. Numerous interpretations of the Skírnismál are possible, and I won’t try to summarize any of them here. Suffice it to say that there is much going on in that poem.
My poem here is in ljóðaháttr. The spelling has been mostly anglicized here. Note that the Old Norse name “Freyr” is not so much a name as it is a title. It actually means “Lord.” Thus I can assure you that the last half stanza is still a reference to Freyr and not to a certain monotheism.
While it is still winter in the northern hemisphere, I present a poem in honor of Ullr, one of the gods most associated with winter. This is perhaps because he is associated with skis, a distinction he shares with Skaði, who is also connected with wintertime.
There is not much lore about Ullr, but I have worked most of it into this poem. In stanza one, the unusual surfing reference comes from the Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus (which is also the source of the variant name Ollerus). Stanza two is inspired by Atlakviða (stanza 30), which seems to connect Ullr to the swearing of oaths. Ull’s dwelling in Ýdalir is mentioned in Grímnismál 5, though I have added the idea of winter winds being there. The other half of stanza three is inspired by Ull’s connection to hunting via archery. The first half of stanza four is built from the attributes that Snorri ascribes to him (Gylfaginning 31). The poem is in fornyrðislag.
It is one of the major themes of my blog that the lore should be made operative and used in modern heathen poetry. Such poetry can be put to a number of uses. In one kind of usage, it can inspire and instruct, and it should relate the lore to our modern needs. Today I present a poem that should help illustrate at least some aspects of what is meant by that.
Most American Asatruar are at least familiar with the Nine Noble Virtues, regardless of what they may think of them. (An earlier poem on this blog gives a complete list in poetic form.) It is common to say that the NNV were originally gleaned from a reading of the lore, primarily the Hávamál. At one point, I took a closer look into one of the nine, Perseverance, with the aim to discover if it was displayed in other parts of the lore, particularly the rest of the Poetic and Prose Eddas and the Rune Poems. Here is a poem I wrote based on what I found.
It’s been nearly three months since I last posted sumbel toasts to this blog. The previous ones were short, two stanza toasts. This time, I present a longer, more formal toast in honor of Odin. It is the sort of thing that I write for the more elaborate sumbels that take place at large Asatru gatherings. It is written as a seven stanza ljóðaháttr drápa, with the final stanza ending in a galdralag couplet; the refrain is italicized. To make it more friendly to my readers, I have completely anglicized the spelling of the Norse names and words. I originally wrote it as part of a three round sequence of toasts; I may post the other two toasts at some point in the future. This is also a likely future audio recording.
Winter is still very much here in the northern hemisphere, and in honor of it, I present an audio recording of my poem Vetrartímadrápa. Last week’s audio, The Six Treasures, was in the ljóðaháttr style. This one, however, is in the fornyrðislag style, so you’ll probably be able to notice a distinct difference in the rhythm between the two poems when recited out loud.
The Skaldic Eagle 