1Hearing I ask from the holy races,
2From Heimdall's sons, both high and low;
3Thou wilt, Valfather, that well I relate
4Old tales I remember of men long ago.
5I remember the giants born early in time,
6Who long ago did bring me up.
7Nine worlds I knew, the nine in the tree
8With mighty roots beneath the mold.
9There was in the beginning, where Ymir dwelt,
10No sand nor sea, no surging waves;
11Nowhere was earth nor heaven above,
12But a gaping void, and grass nowhere.
13Then Bur's sons lifted the level land,
14Mithgarth the mighty there they made;
15The sun from the south warmed the stones of earth,
16And green was the ground with growing leeks.
17The sun, the sister of the moon, from the south
18Her right hand cast over heaven's rim;
19No knowledge she had where her home should be,
20The moon knew not what might was his,
21The stars knew not where their stations were.
22Then sought the gods their assembly-seats,
23The holy ones, and council held;
24Names then gave they to noon and twilight,
25Morning they named, and the waning moon,
26Night and evening, the years to number.
27At Ithavoll met the mighty gods,
28Shrines and temples they timbered high;
29Forges they set, and they smithied ore,
30Tongs they wrought, and tools they fashioned.
31In their dwellings at peace they played at tables,
32Of gold no lack did the gods then know —
33Till thither came up giant-maids three,
34Huge of might, out of Jotunheim.
35Then sought the gods their assembly-seats,
36The holy ones, and council held,
37To find who should raise the race of dwarfs
38Out of Brimir's blood and the legs of Blain.
39Then asked all the powers, who on the benches sat,
40Who had mixed air with sea, and the sea with power of fire;
41Odin and Hoenir, and Lothur had done this.
42An ash I know, Yggdrasil its name,
43With water white is the great tree wet;
44Thence come the dews that fall in the dales,
45Green by Urth's well does it ever grow.
46Thence come the maidens mighty in wisdom,
47Three from the dwelling down under the tree;
48Urth is one named, Verthandi the next —
49On the wood they scored — and Skuld the third.
50Laws they made there, and life allotted
51To the sons of men, and set their fates.
52The war I remember, the first in the world,
53When the gods with spears had smitten Gullveig,
54And in the hall of Hor had burned her,
55Three times burned, and three times born,
56Oft and again, yet ever she lives.
57Then sought the gods their assembly-seats,
58The holy ones, and council held:
59Whether the gods should tribute give,
60Or should all the gods to the feast have right.
61Odin hurled, and hurled his spear
62O'er the host; was this still the first world-war.
63Broken was the plank-wall, and the fortress burst;
64Hard were the Vanir, skilled in magic, in the field.
65Brothers shall fight and fell each other,
66And sisters' sons shall kinship stain;
67Hard is it on earth, with mighty whoredom;
68Axe-time, sword-time, shields are sundered,
69Wind-time, wolf-time, ere the world falls;
70Nor ever shall men each other spare.
71The sun turns black, earth sinks in the sea,
72The hot stars down from heaven are whirled;
73Fierce grows the steam and the life-feeding flame,
74Till fire leaps high about heaven itself.
75Now do I see the earth anew
76Rise all green from the waves again;
77The cataracts fall, and the eagle flies,
78And fish he catches beneath the cliffs.
79The gods in Ithavoll meet together,
80Of the terrible girdler of earth they talk,
81And the mighty past they call to mind,
82And the ancient runes of the Ruler of Gods.
83In wondrous beauty once again
84Shall the golden tables stand mid the grass,
85Which the gods had owned in the days of old.
86Then fields unsowed bear ripened fruit,
87All ills grow better, and Baldr comes back;
88Baldr and Hoth dwell in Hropt's battle-hall,
89And the mighty gods: would you know yet more?
90More fair than the sun, a hall I see,
91Roofed with gold, on Gimlé it stands;
92There shall the righteous rulers dwell,
93And happiness ever there shall they have.