The Second Sermon the Warpland

by Gwendolyn Brooks

For Walter Bradford

1.

This is the urgency: Live!
and have your blooming in the noise of the whirlwind.

2.

Salve salvage in the spin.
Endorse the splendor splashes;
stylize the flawed utility;
prop a malign or failing light--
but know the whirlwind is our commonwealth.
Not the easy man, who rides above them all,
not the jumbo brigand,
not the pet bird of poets, that sweetest sonnet,
shall straddle the whirlwind.
Nevertheless, live.

3.

All about are the cold places,
all about are the pushmen and jeopardy, theft--
all about are the stormers and scramblers but
what must our Season be, which starts from Fear?
Live and go out.
Define and
medicate the whirlwind.

4.

The time
cracks into furious flower. Lifts its face
all unashamed. And sways in wicked grace.
Whose half-black hands assemble oranges
is tom-tom hearted
(goes in bearing oranges and boom).
And there are bells for orphans--
and red and shriek and sheen.
A garbageman is dignified
as any diplomat.
Big Bessie's feet hurt like nobody's business,
but she stands--bigly--under the unruly scrutiny, stands 
in the wild weed.

In the wild weed
she is a citizen,
and is a moment of highest quality; admirable.

It is lonesome, yes. For we are the last of the loud.
Nevertheless, live.

Conduct your blooming in the noise and whip of the 
whirlwind.

Agape and Philia

"Brotherly love in the literal sense comes at the expense of brotherly love in the biblical sense; the more precisely we bestow unconditional kindness on relatives, the less of it is left over for others." (Wright, pg. 160)

The Duty of Poets

"Rhetoric is the art of saying well that which may or may not be true, and it is the duty of poets to invent beautiful falsehoods." (Eco, pg. 55)

The Voice of Souls

"Can he have a soul, Niketas wondered, this character who can bend his narrative to express different souls? And if he has different souls, through which mouth, as he speaks, will he tell me the truth?" (Eco, Pg. 50)

The Dead Who Speak

"People will believe anything provided it's the dead who speak." (Eco, pg. 247)

Dress and Gold

"Kyot could have been one of those Lebanese who dress badly but have pockets full of gold pieces" (Eco, pg. 244)

Hate Your Neighbor

"That's how it is in our parts. You may hate the foreigner, but most of all you hate your neighbor. And if the foreigner helps us harm our neighbor, then he's welcome."

"But why?"

"Because people are wicked, as my father always said, but the people of Asti are worse than Barbarossa." (Eco, pg. 47)

A Man of Letters

"If you want to become a man of letters and perhaps write some Histories one day, you must also lie and invent tales, otherwise your History would become monotonous. But you must act with restraint. The world condemns liars who do nothing but lie, even about the most trivial things, and it rewards poets, who lie only about the greatest things." (Eco pg. 43)

Matters of Law

"Niketas had long since learned that the Latins, though they were barbarians, were extremely complicated, hopeless when it came to fine points and subtleties if a theological question was at stake, but capable of splitting a hair four ways on matters of law."

Questions of Government

"But this basileus of yours, this emperor, as you call him, was he crowned in Pavia or in Rome? And why in Italy, if he's the basileus of the Alamans?"

"One thing at a time, Master Niketas. For us Latins things aren't as simple as they are for you Romei. In your country someone gouges out the eyes of the current basileus, and he becomes basileus himself., everybody agrees, and even the patriarch of Constantinople does what the new basileus tells him, otherwise the basileus gouges out his eyes too."

"Now don't exaggerate."

"Exaggerate? Me? When I got here they told me right away that the basileus, Alexis III, ascended the throne because he'd blinded the legitimate ruler, his brother Isaac."

"Doesn't anybody ever eliminate his predecessor and seize the throne in your country?"

"Yes, but they kill him in battle, or with some poison, or with a dagger."

"You see? You people are barbarians. You can't imagine a less bloody way of managing questions of government. And besides, Isaac was Alexi's brother. Brother doesn't kill brother."

(Eco, pg. 32)

The Problem of My Life

"...the problem of my life is that I've always confused what I saw with what I wanted to see." 

(pg 30)

Maybe We Want Too Much

"Maybe we want too much," Rabbi Solomon said, "but at this point we can't help wanting it." (Eco, pg. 340)

The Dislocated

I fell asleep in Cincinnati, and woke up 36,000 feet above England

A little lost but still fed by a happiness drawn from the roots of another place

Like a cutting suddenly removed from a garden to a botanist’s specimen box

Carried through customs to a train station and given a free map of London

A color-coded vascular knot of streets that gave me a destination 

The names on signs where I could roll my luggage around with purpose

Up and down the sidewalks where scattered groups of workers smoked

Chatting about their lives and the abundant lies of perception

How much has to be left out for any of it to be useful. 

The St. James on Buckingham Gate has Cuban cigars and Polish waiters

A place to adjust to another time and purchase some much-needed rest

Until the open window of my room in the cool afternoon 

Admits the voices of children playing on an asphalt school ground 

The shouts of familiar words in unfamiliar accents

Strange adverbs of time and place and manner of action

The playground is empty when I finally get out of bed and leave

Take their memory, a gift they never knew they gave, one that cost them nothing

But has it really changed anything?

From London, the road leads west, towards the edge of old Saxon Briton

Where moonrakers once stirred the ponds for cheese

Towards a hilltop with holy wells and steep sides facing south 

To a room in the Old Bell, near where the west wall used to stand 

War makes a village.

 

Malmesbury pulls me out of my room like water from a spring. 

The sounds of bells from the abbey and the church near the car park 

Small tires on wet pavement on the wrong side of the road

An Alfa Romeo or Audi with a small engine

It is impossible to drive fast on narrow roads with blind curves

So many pedestrians for such a small place

People walk, run towards the center of the old town 

Footsteps on stone sidewalks before stone houses of the same stone 

Is there a stone left in these fields after twenty-five centuries?

If not stones, then certainly children and the old people who follow them

Here bound together by the elastic space between generations

The young are eager to live, to be somewhere other than where they are

Would the silent old ones with canes run if they could

Has the acquisition of so many memories taught them 

Nothing worth keeping is made in just one lifetime?

Something is happening in Malmesbury tonight 

Up the hill from the Ingleburn and the Avon

There is a celebration near the grave of King Athelstan

It draws people up the sidewalks and past straight walls of broken stone

An old man going the opposite way, heading west out of town alone 

Perhaps he forgot something, perhaps he is weary from the hard work of history 

Perhaps he is thinking of the way he used to measure his life in good years 

Now he hopes for a good day or two

A boy runs, two children skip, excited as only the young are

Unconcerned about what they will do and how they will pay for it 

A woman carries a dish covered in aluminum foil, a gift or a product 

A celebration must have food, prepared fresh and enjoyed right away. 

Up Abbey Row, white lights illuminate the old ruins

Strands of bulbs across High Street glow alternating red, green and yellow

Lights above children excited by a taste of freedom, life out of the ordinary

The allure of familiar faces in unfamiliar shades and poses

A night when something, anything might happen, everything might change

Either under the lights or in the dark places of the town

There could be love, or pleasure, or danger, and everything might change again.

A four-piece band that has not missed a meal plays Christmas carols

Just steps away from the ancient dead, behind wet stone and iron

Inflatable playgrounds near Market Cross, the drone of compressors

The living move without fear past the dead in shadows

The living move past stones no more than ornaments

A kind of yard art in the perception of those who do not yet realize 

Everything important begins in a crowd of inconsequential events

Only the passage of time conceals what is lost, reveals what is worth possessing

What should be thrown away, forgotten, or buried in the ground.

E pur si muove

Right now, in the imperfect probabilities of this moment

The surest thing that we possess is not stable

Even the past is not stationary; it moves with the present

The heretics of one generation become the heroes of the next

And little children learn what once would have cost a man his life.

No Imagination

"In any case, the time I'm now talking about, he went down very angry, ready for a hard war. With him was the marquess of Monferrato, as well as the cities of Alba, Acqui, Pavia, and Como..."

"But you just said that Pavia had gone over to the League?"

"Did I? Oh, yes, before. But in the meantime it had come back to the emperor."

"Oh, Lord!" Niketas cried, "our emperors dig each other's eyes out, but at least, as long as they see, we know whose side they are on....."

"You people have no imagination."

You See What a City Is?

"You see what a city is?" Ghini said to him. "And if it's like this before it's even finished, imagine what will happen afterwards: it's another life. Every day you see new people -- for the merchants, just think, it's like having the Heavenly Jerusalem; for the knights, since the emperor forbade them to sell lands so as not to divide the fief, and they were bored to death in the countryside, now they command companies of bowmen, they ride out in parades, they give orders left and right. But things don't prosper just for the gentry and the merchants: it's a providence also for a man like your father, who doesn't have much land but has some livestock, and people arrive in the city and ask him for stock and pay cash; they're beginning to sell for ready money and not through barter. I don't know if you understand what that means: if you exchange two chickens for three rabbits sooner or later you have to eat them, otherwise they grow too old, whereas two coins you can hide under you mattress and they're good ten years from now, and if you're lucky they stay there even if enemies come into your house. Besides, it's happened in Milan and in Lodi and Pavia, and it will also happen here with us: it's not that the the Ghinis or the Aularis have to keep their mouths shut and only the Guascos or the Trottis give the orders. We're all part of those who make the decisions: here you can become important even if you're not a noble, and this is the fine thing about a city, and it's specially fine for one who isn't noble, and is ready to get himself killed, if he really has to (but it's better not), because his sons can go around saying: My name is Ghini and even if your name is Trotti, you're still shit" (Eco, pgs. 162-163). 

Too Small for a Republic

"South Carolina is too small for a republic and too large for an insane asylum."

Former South Carolina Attorney General and anti-secessionist James L. Petigru, 1860

Cover the State With Ruin

"I would be willing to appeal to the god of battles -- if need be, cover the state with ruin, conflagration, and blood rather than submit." 

 

Pro-secessionist South Carolina Governor Francis W. Pickens, November 1860 (Edgar, pg. 376)

Voices from the Necropolis

Nature is not cruel, just sometimes clumsy
Stumbling upon new possibilities
In the slow violence of geologic time.

The streets came first, familiar names on paper
Drawn broad and straight in squares
Like razor wounds on earth
Secure high ground near water
Where rivers the colors of rust and jade
Cut through the boneless crust of clay
An Eocene shore of warm and iceless seas
Lay bare the granite ribs of sinless worlds.

Where we could not build rivers, we built streets
Our marks upon the surface, the work of men
Blind with purpose you still misunderstand
The beauty you admire, the vows that you exchange
Was not our beauty and were not our vows
Even cruelty is redefined in time.

We built streets we thought too broad to burn
For a city that would burn at the end of our age.

We built because we had to
The deep necessity of our nature
What is art but knowledge in reserve
Perhaps never useful, but used nevertheless
More than instinct, less than revelation
Our precarious urge to disturb the surface of things.

On random days in summer, the heat could kill a man
The air was hot enough to make us believe
We could not breath, and we would never be happy again
The physics of temperature and humidity
Drove us to seek the cool spaces of our creation,
Shade trees, high ceilings and porches,
Where we tried to beg or steal or trade our happiness.

What is the soul that it is so easily troubled by a happiness that cannot last?
Something shocked and saddened by constant motion
When everything is crushed like water trapped in ice
The rain of restless storms, the clouds that block the sun
The sudden and unexpected chill of unforgiving seasons.

The ages end more quickly now
The transient world reforms itself
Unconstrained by the chemistry of the past.

Prologue

Why do you want to know something that can only make you miserable?
Do not mistake what is truly useful for what is merely true
Watch your diet, exercise, balance your checkbook
Enjoy the stained glass of churches and museums
Each luminous fragment of meaning arranged in painless beauty
Like shells scattered on a beach by a storm
Like the endless light of shattered stars 
Something made beautiful by one catastrophe after another.

No Stories Without Meaning

"In saving my life you have given me what little future remains to me and I will repay you by giving back the past you have lost..."

"But maybe my story has no meaning."

"There are no stories without a meaning. And I am one of those men who can find it even where others fail to see it. Afterwards the story becomes the book of the living, like a blaring trumpet that raises from the tomb those who have been dust for centuries...Still it takes time, you have to consider the events, arrange them in order, find the connections, even the least visible ones." 

(Eco, pg. 12)

Peace and Security

"When people are saying, "Peace and security, then suddenly disaster comes upon them, like labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape."

1 Thessalonians 5: 3

Timeline

1670 - Charles Town founded

1680 - Charles Town moved to present location, Oyster Point

1778 - First state constitution, Protestant Christian preference

1786 (March 22) - Columbia created by act of legislature

1789 to 1799- The French Revolution

1789 (August 24) - St. Mary's, first Catholic Church in the Carolinas and Georgia, established in Charleston. Records kept in French until 1822. 

1790 - Second state constitution, disestablishment 

1799 - Napoleon I stages coup d'etat

1801 - Thomas Jefferson elected third President, succeeding John Adams; served until 1809

1803 - The Louisiana Purchase under President Jefferson

1804 - Napoleon crowns himself Emperor of the French

1805 - WR born in SC

1809 - James Madison elected President; served until 1817

1812 - France invades Russia

1826 (July 4) - Thomas Jefferson dies

1826 - Bishop England preaches to the US House of Representatives

1828 - Mills Building of the SC Lunatic Asylum completed

1838 (April 28) - Ansonborough district in Charleston, including St. Mary of the Annunciation Roman Catholic Church, is destroyed by a fire

1861 (April 12) - The Civil War begins

1864 (Oct.) - POW camp on grounds of lunatic asylum 

1865 (Feb.) - POW camp moved from grounds of lunatic asylum

1865 (Feb. 17) - Columbia burns

1865 (Feb. 26) - Skirmish at Lynch's Creek 

1865 (April 9) - The Civil War ends

1865 (May 13) - WR dies, POW

Ancient Morning Light

Ancient morning light 

Fills my room with a question 

I almost answer. 

But I will not get out from

Underneath all my blankets.

My cat knows morning

Makes his choice to stay in bed

Sleeping at my feet.

But the trough is planed with glass

I feel, and too, the small pond.

Mist From the Blue Ridge

Mist from the Blue Ridge

Comes down the old forest roads 

To Columbia.

The fishermen in their boats

Always catch what they cannot see. 

Lay There

"Now lay there, me bye. Lay there quite till the doomsday trump. And dont ye be fomenting no more rebellions down there where ye're burrning." (pg. 189)

Pro Patria Mori

"When a man gives his life for his country he wants to get the worth of it, if you see what I mean" (pg. 190).

Regret of a Particular Regional Form

"When I heard this, that the general had died because of his consideration for men who a short time before had been shooting at him and doing all their power to wreck his cause, I remembered what my father had said about the South bearing within itself the seeds of defeat, the Confederacy being conceived already moribund. We were sick from an old malady, he said: incurable romanticism and misplaced chivalry, too much Walter Scott and Dumas read too seriously. We were in love with the past, he said; in love with death.

He enjoyed posing as a realist and straight thinker -- war was more shovelry than chivalry, he said -- but he was a highly romantic figure of a man himself and he knew it, he with the creased forehead and his tales of the war in Texas, with his empty sleeve and his midnight drinking beneath the portrait of his wife in that big empty house in New Orleans. He talked that way because of some urge for self-destruction, some compulsion to hate what he had become: an old man with a tragic life, who sent his son off to a war he was to maimed to take part in himself. It was regret. It was regret of a particular regional form" (pg. 199-200).

Great Things

"All great things mature slowly" 

(Campbell, quoting Schopenhauer, pg. 39)

A Vision of A Universe

“What these pages [in the National Geographic Atlas of the World] opened to me was the vision of a universe of unimaginable magnitude and inconceivable violence. Billions, upon billions, literally, of roaring thermonuclear furnaces scattering from each other. Each thermonuclear furnace being a star and our sun among them. Many of them actually blowing themselves to pieces, littering the outermost reaches of space with dust and gas out of which new stars with circling planets are being born right now. And then from still more remote distances beyond all these there come murmurs, microwaves which are echoes of the greatest cataclysmic explosion of all, namely the Big Bang of creation which according to recent reckonings must have occurred some 18 billion years ago” (Program 5, track 13).

The Artist and Myth

"Myth must be kept alive. The people who can keep it alive are artists of one kind or another. The function of the artist is the mythologization of the environment and the world" (Program 3, track 9).

Bill Moyers on Faith & Reason

Life, Intended

No one gets to live the life he intended, but everyone gets the chance to enjoy the life he lives.

Meaning in Suffering

"If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete." (pg. 76)

One Thing I Dread

"There is only one thing I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings."

Viktor Frankl quoting Fyodor Dostoevsky (pg. 75)

The Ineffable

The best things cannot be told. The second best are misunderstood. The rest is what we talk about everyday.

Paraphrase of Joseph Campbell, remembering Heinrich Zimmer

A Mightly Avalanche

"Let me tell you what is coming. After the sacrifice of countless millions of treasure and hundreds of thousands of lives you may win Southern independence, but I doubt it. The North is determined to preserve this Union. They are not a fiery, impulsive people as you are, for they live in colder climates. But when they begin to move in a given direction, they move with the steady momentum and perseverance of a mighty avalanche."

Sam Houston of Texas, 1861

Idols of the Tribe

"At State, everybody calls diversity dispersity. What happens is, everybody has their own clubs, their own signs, their own sections where they all sit in the dining hall -- all the African Americans are over there? ... and all the Asians sit over't these other tables? -- except for the Koreans? -- because they don't get along with the Japanese, so they sit way over there? Everybody's dispersed into their own little groups -- and everybody's told to distrust everybody else? Everybody's told that everybody else is trying to screw them over -- oops!" Laurie pulled a face and put her fingertip over her lips -- "I'm sorry!" She rolled eyes and smiled. "Anyway, the idea is, every other group is like prejudiced against your group, and no matter what they say, they're only out to take advantage of you, and you should have nothing to do with them -- unless you're white, in which case all the others are not prejudiced against you, they're like totally right, because you really are racist and everything, even if you don't know it? Everybody ends up dispersed into their own like turtle shells, suspicious of everybody else and being careful not to fraternize with them." (pg. 550)

A Modern Creed

"The man sitting across from him, the butterball grotesquely squeezed into a dark gray sweater, was of another sort entirely, despite the fact that they were both Jewish and agreed on practically every public issue of the day. Both believed passionately in protecting minorities, particularly African Americans, as well as Jews. Both regarded Israel as the most important nation on earth, although neither was tempted to live there. Both instinctively sided with the underdog; police violence really got them steamed. Both were firm believers in diversity and multiculturalism in colleges. Both believed in abortion, not so much because they thought anyone they knew might want an abortion as because legalizing it helped put an exhausted and dysfunctional Christendom and its weird, hidebound religious restraints in their place. For the same reason, both believed in gay rights, women's rights, transgender rights, fox, bear, wolf, swordfish, halibut, ozone, wetland, and hardwood rights, gun control, contemporary art, and the Democratic Party. Both were against hunting and, for that matter, woods, fields, mountain trails, rock climbing, sailing, fishing, and the outdoors in general, except for golf courses and the beach." (Wolfe, pg. 511)

Mens Sana

"See?" -- Coach went on -- "The Greeks knew something we've lost sight of. A good mind don't mean much unless it's one and the same thing" -- he held up his hands and interlaced his fingers -- "with a good body. Mens sana in corpore sano. That's Greek for 'If you want a great university, you damn well better have a great athletic program.'" (Wolfe, pg. 192)

In the Past

"...in the past, nothing is irretrievably lost but everything is irrevocably stored." (Frankl, pg. 124)

Death in Teheran

"A rich and mighty Persian once walked in his garden with one of his servants. The servant cried that he had just encountered Death, who had threatened him. He begged his master to give him his fastest horse so that he could make haste and flee to Teheran, which he could reach that same evening. The master consented and the servant galloped off on the horse. On returning to his house the master himself met Death, and questioned him, 'Why did you terrify and threaten my servant?'

'I did not threaten him; I only showed surprise in still finding him here when I planned to meet him tonight in Teheran,' said Death.'" (Frankl, pg. 66)

***

"Many weeks later we found out that even in those last hours fate had toyed with us few remaining prisoners. We found out just how uncertain human decisions are, especially in matters of life and death. I was confronted with photographs which had been taken in a small camp not far from ours. Our friends who had thought they were travelling to freedom that night had been taken in the trucks to this camp, and there they were locked in the huts and burned to death. Their partially charred bodies were recognizable on the photographs. I thought again of Death in Teheran." (Frankl, pg. 71)

The World State

"Community. Identity. Stability."

The motto of the world-state in Brave New World.

Everyone Belongs

"Everyone belongs to everyone else"

The Foundation of Life

"The myth is the foundation of life, the timeless schema, the pious formula into which life flows when it reproduces its traits out of the unconscious."


Thomas Mann, quoted in Joseph Campbell, p. 18.

The Festival of the Passing Forms

"To make it [mythology] serve the present hour, we have only to assemble -- or reassemble -- it in its full dimension, scientifically, and then bring it to life as our own, in the way of art: the way of wonder -- sympathetic, instructive delight; not judging morally, but participating with our own awakened humanity in the festival of the passing forms."

Campbell, pg. 18.

The Well of the Past

"Very deep is the well of the past. Should we not call it bottomless?"

Thomas Mann, Joseph and His Brothers,

1933 - 1943

Photographer Carl Van Vechten, Library of Congress, reproduction number LC-USZ62-42522 DLC, 20 April 1937

Indomitable Defense

On one of the right angles formed by the intersection of the perfectly staight lines of Richardson and Blanding Streets in downtown Columbia, Mother Superior Baptista Lynch of the Ursuline Convent and Academy was responsible for the practical and moral education of over two hundred young women, and the indomitable defense of their procreative power in a fallen world.

A sister of the Bishop, she had come to the South Carolina from Ohio, arriving on the first of September, 1858.

The Next Great Movement

"Looking back today over the twelve delightful years that I spent on this richly rewarding enterprise, I find that its main result for me has been its confirmation of a thought I have long and faithfully entertained: of the unity of the race of man, not only in its biology but also in its spiritual history, which has everywhere unfolded in the manner of a single symphony, with its themes announced, developed, amplified and turned about, distorted, reasserted, and, today, in a grand fortissimo of all sections sounding together, irresistibly advancing to some kind of mighty climax, out of which the next great movement will emerge."

Joseph Campbell,The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology,  Penguin 1977, pg. v.

The Bonds Are Distintegrating of Themselves

"For indeed, it is man that has created the gods, whereas the power that created the universe is none other than the will that operates in man himself and in man alone has achieved the consciousness of its kingdom, power, and glory.

Zeus, it may be recalled, had taken offense when Prometheus had tricked him at the time of the offering of a sacrifice. The Titan, having slain a sacrificial bull, filled the stomach of the beast with meat for himself and his people, wrapping the bones deceptively and attractively in juicy fat; and when he presented these two packaged portions to the king of the gods, bidding him choose the one he desired, Zeus, deceived, took the portion wrapped in fat. Opening which, and finding nothing but bones, Zeus became a god of wrath, and to such an absurd degree that he withheld from mankind the precious gift of fire. Whereupon Prometheus, man's savior, stole it - according to one version, from the workshop of the lame god of fire and metalwork, Hephaistos; but, according to another, from the hearth of Zeus himself, on the summit of Olympus. Prometheus carried with him a hollow stalk of narthex, which he ignited at the blaze, and then, waving the stalk to keep it burning, came running back. Still another version relates that Prometheus plucked his fire from the sun.64 But in any case, Zeus took upon him an extreme revenge. For he caused Hephaistos to nail the boon-bringcr to the highest summit of the Caucasus, drove a pillar through his middle in the way of a stake, and sent an eagle to eat his liver. What is torn away of the liver in the day grows back at night, so that the torture goes on and on. And yet, the punishment, presently, will end; for, as Prometheus knows, there is a prophecy that one day his chains will fall away of themselves and the world-eon of Zeus dissolve.

The prophecy is the same as that of the Eddic Twilight of the Gods, when Loki will lead forth the rugged hosts of Hel:

Then shall happen what seems great tidings: the Wolf shall swallow the sun; and
this shall seem to men a great harm. Then the other wolf shall seize the moon,
and he also shall work great ruin; the stars shall vanish from the heavens. Then
shall come to pass these tidings also: all the earth shall tremble so, and the
crags, that trees shall be torn up from the earth, and the crags fall to ruin;
and all fetters and bonds shall be broken and rent.... The Fenris-Wolf shall ad-
vance with gaping mouth, and his lower jaw shall be against the earth, but the
upper against heaven, - he would gape yet more if there were room for it; fires
blaze forth from his eyes and nostrils. The Midgard Serpent shall blow venom so
that he shall sprinkle all the air and water; and he is very terrible, and shall
be on one side of the Wolf.... Then shall the Ash of Yggdrasil tremble, and
nothing then shall be without fear in heaven or on earth.

The binding of the shamans by the Hactcin, by the gods and their priests, which commenced with the victory of the neolithic over the paleolithic way of life, may perhaps be already terminating - today - in this period of the irreversible transition of society from an agricultural to industrial base, when not the piety of the planter, bowing humbly before the will of the calendar and the gods of rain and sun, but the magic of the laboratory, flying rocket ships where the gods once sat, holds the promise of the boons of the future. "Could it be possible! This old saint in the forest has not heard that God is dead!"

Nietzsche's word was the first pronouncement of the Promethean Titan that is now coming unbound within us - for the next world age. And the priests of the chains of Zeus may well tremble; for the bonds are disintegrating of themselves."

Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology, Penguin 1977, pg. 280-281.

VÖLUSPÂ. THE VALA'S PROPHECY.

1. For silence I pray all sacred children, great and small, sons of Heimdall,[5] they will that I Valfather's deeds recount, men's ancient saws, those that I best remember.

2. The Jötuns I remember early born, those who me of old have reared. I nine worlds remember, nine trees, the great central tree, beneath the earth.

3. There was in times of old, where Ymir dwelt, nor sand nor sea, nor gelid waves; earth existed not, nor heaven above, 'twas a chaotic chasm, and grass nowhere.

4. Before Bur's sons raised up heaven's vault, they who the noble mid-earth shaped. The sun shone from the south over the structure's rocks: then was the earth begrown with herbage green.

5. The sun from the south, the moon's companion, her right hand cast about the heavenly horses. The sun knew not where she[6] a dwelling had, the moon knew not what power he possessed, the stars knew not where they had a station.

[Pg 2]6. Then went the powers all to their judgment-seats, the all-holy gods, and thereon held council: to night and to the waning moon gave names; morn they named, and mid-day, afternoon and eve, whereby to reckon years.

7. The Æsir met on Ida's plain; they altar-steads and temples high constructed; their strength they proved, all things tried, furnaces established, precious things forged, formed tongs, and fabricated tools;

8. At tables played at home; joyous they were; to them was naught the want of gold, until there came Thurs-maidens three, all powerful, from Jötunheim.

9. Then went all the powers to their judgment-seats, the all-holy gods, and thereon held council, who should of the dwarfs the race create, from the sea-giant's blood and livid bones.

10. Then was Môtsognir created greatest of all the dwarfs, and Durin second; there in man's likeness they created many dwarfs from earth, as Durin said.

11. Nýi and Nidi, Nordri and Sudri, Austri and Vestri, Althiôf, Dvalin Nâr and Nâin, Niping, Dain, Bivör, Bavör, Bömbur, Nori, An and Anar, Ai, Miodvitnir,

12. Veig and Gandâlf, Vindâlf, Thrain, Thekk and Thorin, Thrôr, Vitr, and Litr, Nûr and Nýrâd, Regin and Râdsvid. Now of the dwarfs I have rightly told.

13. Fili, Kili, Fundin, Nali, Hepti, Vili, Hanar, Svior, Billing, Bruni, Bild, Bûri, Frâr, Hornbori, Fræg and Lôni, Aurvang, Iari, Eikinskialdi.

14. Time 'tis of the dwarfs in Dvalin's band, to the sons of men, to Lofar up to reckon, those who came forth from the world's rock, earth's foundation, to Iora's plains.

[Pg 3]15. There were Draupnir, and Dôlgthrasir, Hâr, Haugspori, Hlævang, Glôi, Skirvir, Virvir, Skafid, Ai, Alf and Yngvi, Eikinskialdi,

16. Fialar and Frosti, Finn and Ginnar, Heri, Höggstari, Hliôdôlf, Moin: that above shall, while mortals live, the progeny of Lofar, accounted be.

17. Until there came three mighty and benevolent Æsir to the world from their assembly. They found on earth, nearly powerless, Ask and Embla, void of destiny.

18. Spirit they possessed not, sense they had not, blood nor motive powers, nor goodly colour. Spirit gave Odin, sense gave Hoenir, blood gave Lodur, and goodly colour.

19. I know an ash standing Yggdrasil hight, a lofty tree, laved with limpid water: thence come the dews into the dales that fall; ever stands it green over Urd's fountain.

20. Thence come maidens, much knowing, three from the hall, which under that tree stands; Urd hight the one, the second Verdandi,—on a tablet they graved—Skuld the third. Laws they established, life allotted to the sons of men; destinies pronounced.

21. Alone she[7] sat without, when came that ancient dread Æsir's prince; and in his eye she gazed.

22. "Of what wouldst thou ask me? Why temptest thou me? Odin! I know all, where thou thine eye didst sink in the pure well of Mim." Mim drinks mead each morn from Valfather's pledge.[8] Understand ye yet, or what?

[Pg 4]23. The chief of hosts gave her rings and necklace, useful discourse, and a divining spirit: wide and far she saw o'er every world.

24. She the Valkyriur saw from afar coming, ready to ride to the god's people: Skuld held a shield, Skögul was second, then Gunn, Hild Göndul, and Geirskögul. Now are enumerated Herian's maidens, the Valkyriur, ready over the earth to ride.

25. She that war remembers, the first on earth, when Gullveig[9] they with lances pierced, and in the high one's[10] hall her burnt, thrice burnt, thrice brought her forth, oft not seldom; yet she still lives.

26. Heidi they called her, whithersoe'r she came, the well-foreseeing Vala: wolves she tamed, magic arts she knew, magic arts practised; ever was she the joy of evil people.

27. Then went the powers all to their judgment-seats, the all-holy gods, and thereon held council, whether the Æsir should avenge the crime,[11] or all the gods receive atonement.

28. Broken was the outer wall of the Æsir's burgh. The Vanir, foreseeing conflict, tramp o'er the plains. Odin cast [his spear], and mid the people hurled it: that was the first warfare in the world.

29. Then went the powers all to their judgment-seats, the all-holy gods, and thereon held council: who had all the air with evil mingled? or to the Jötun race Od's maid had given?

[Pg 5]30. There alone was Thor with anger swollen. He seldom sits, when of the like he hears. Oaths are not held sacred; nor words, nor swearing, nor binding compacts reciprocally made.

31. She knows that Heimdall's horn is hidden under the heaven-bright holy tree. A river she sees flow, with foamy fall, from Valfather's pledge. Understand ye yet, or what?

32. East sat the crone, in Iârnvidir, and there reared up Fenrir's progeny: of all shall be one especially the moon's devourer, in a troll's semblance.

33. He is sated with the last breath of dying men; the god's seat he with red gore defiles: swart is the sunshine then for summers after; all weather turns to storm. Understand ye yet, or what?

34. There on a height sat, striking a harp, the giantess's watch, the joyous Egdir; by him crowed, in the bird-wood, the bright red cock, which Fialar hight.

35. Crowed o'er the Æsir Gullinkambi, which wakens heroes with the sire of hosts; but another crows beneath the earth, a soot-red cock, in the halls of Hel.

36. I saw of Baldr, the blood-stained god, Odin's son, the hidden fate. There stood grown up, high on the plain, slender and passing fair, the mistletoe.

37. From that shrub was made, as to me it seemed, a deadly, noxious dart. Hödr shot it forth; but Frigg bewailed, in Fensalir, Valhall's calamity. Understand ye yet, or what?

38. Bound she saw lying, under Hveralund, a mon[Pg 6]strous form, to Loki like. There sits Sigyn, for her consort's sake, not right glad. Understand ye yet, or what?

39. Then the Vala knew the fatal bonds were twisting, most rigid, bonds from entrails made.

40. From the east a river falls, through venom dales, with mire and clods, Slîd is its name.

41. On the north there stood, on Nida-fells, a hall of gold, for Sindri's race; and another stood in Okôlnir, the Jötuns beer-hall which Brîmir hight.

42. She saw a hall standing, far from the sun, in Nâströnd; its doors are northward turned, venom-drops fall in through its apertures: entwined is that hall with serpents' backs.

43. She there saw wading the sluggish streams bloodthirsty men and perjurers, and him who the ear beguiles of another's wife. There Nidhögg sucks the corpses of the dead; the wolf tears men. Understand ye yet, or what?

44. Further forward I see, much can I say of Ragnarök and the gods' conflict.

45. Brothers shall fight, and slay each other; cousins shall kinship violate. The earth resounds, the giantesses flee; no man will another spare.

46. Hard is it in the world, great whoredom, an axe age, a sword age, shields shall be cloven, a wind age, a wolf age, ere the world sinks.

47. Mim's sons dance, but the central tree takes fire at the resounding Giallar-horn. Loud blows Heimdall, his horn is raised; Odin speaks with Mim's head.

48. Trembles Yggdrasil's ash yet standing; groans [Pg 7]that aged tree, and the jötun is loosed. Loud bays Garm before the Gnupa-cave, his bonds he rends asunder; and the wolf runs.

49. Hrym steers from the east, the waters rise, the mundane snake is coiled in jötun-rage. The worm beats the water, and the eagle screams: the pale of beak tears carcases; Naglfar is loosed.

50. That ship fares from the east: come will Muspell's people o'er the sea, and Loki steers. The monster's kin goes all with the wolf; with them the brother is of Byleist on their course.

51. Surt from the south comes with flickering flame; shines from his sword the Val-gods' sun. The stony hills are dashed together, the giantesses totter; men tread the path of Hel, and heaven is cloven.

52. How is it with the Æsir? How with the Alfar? All Jötunheim resounds; the Æsir are in council. The dwarfs groan before their stony doors, the sages of the rocky walls. Understand ye yet, or what?

53. Then arises Hlîn's second grief, when Odin goes with the wolf to fight, and the bright slayer of Beli with Surt. Then will Frigg's beloved fall.

54. Then comes the great victor-sire's son, Vidar, to fight with the deadly beast. He with his hands will make his sword pierce to the heart of the giant's son: then avenges he his father.

55. Then comes the mighty son of Hlôdyn: (Odin's son goes with the monster to fight); Midgârd's Veor in his rage will slay the worm. Nine feet will go Fiörgyn's son, bowed by the serpent, who feared no foe. All men will their homes forsake.[Pg 8]

56. The sun darkens, earth in ocean sinks, fall from heaven the bright stars, fire's breath assails the all-nourishing tree, towering fire plays against heaven itself.

57. She sees arise, a second time, earth from ocean, beauteously green, waterfalls descending; the eagle flying over, which in the fell captures fish.

58. The Æsir meet on Ida's plain, and of the mighty earth-encircler speak, and there to memory call their mighty deeds, and the supreme god's ancient lore.

59. There shall again the wondrous golden tables in the grass be found, which in days of old had possessed the ruler of the gods, and Fiölnir's race.

60. Unsown shall the fields bring forth, all evil be amended; Baldr shall come; Hödr and Baldr, the heavenly gods, Hropt's glorious dwellings shall inhabit. Understand ye yet, or what?

61. Then can Hoenir choose his lot, and the two brothers' sons inhabit the spacious Vindheim. Understand ye yet, or what?

62. She a hall standing than the sun brighter, with gold bedecked, in Gimill: there shall be righteous people dwell, and for evermore happiness enjoy.

64. Then comes the mighty one to the great judgment, the powerful from above, who rules o'er all. He shall dooms pronounce, and strifes allay, holy peace establish, which shall ever be.

65. There comes the dark dragon flying from beneath the glistening serpent, from Nida-fels. On his wings bears Nidhögg, flying o'er the plain, a corpse. Now she will descend.

Translated by Benjamin Thorpe, 1906

Voluspo (The Wise Woman's Prophecy)

1. Hearing I ask | from the holy races,

From Heimdall's sons, | both high and low;

Thou wilt, Valfather, | that well I relate

Old tales I remember | of men long ago.

2. I remember yet | the giants of yore,

Who gave me bread | in the days gone by;

Nine worlds I knew, | the nine in the tree

With mighty roots | beneath the mold.

3. Of old was the age | when Ymir lived;

Sea nor cool waves | nor sand there were;

Earth had not been, | nor heaven above,

But a yawning gap, | and grass nowhere.

4. Then Bur's sons lifted | the level land,

Mithgarth the mighty | there they made;

The sun from the south | warmed the stones of earth,

And green was the ground | with growing leeks.

5. The sun, the sister | of the moon, from the south

Her right hand cast | over heaven's rim;

No knowledge she had | where her home should be,

The moon knew not | what might was his,

The stars knew not | where their stations were.

6. Then sought the gods | their assembly-seats,

The holy ones, | and council held;

Names then gave they | to noon and twilight,

Morning they named, | and the waning moon,

Night and evening, | the years to number.

7. At Ithavoll met | the mighty gods,

Shrines and temples | they timbered high;

Forges they set, and | they smithied ore,

Tongs they wrought, | and tools they fashioned.

8. In their dwellings at peace | they played at tables,

Of gold no lack | did the gods then know,--

Till thither came | up giant-maids three,

Huge of might, | out of Jotunheim.

9. Then sought the gods | their assembly-seats,

The holy ones, | and council held,

To find who should raise | the race of dwarfs

Out of Brimir's blood | and the legs of Blain.

10. There was Motsognir | the mightiest made

Of all the dwarfs, | and Durin next;

Many a likeness | of men they made,

The dwarfs in the earth, | as Durin said.

11. Nyi and Nithi, | Northri and Suthri,

Austri and Vestri, | Althjof, Dvalin,

Nar and Nain, | Niping, Dain,

Bifur, Bofur, | Bombur, Nori,

An and Onar, | Ai, Mjothvitnir.

12. Vigg and Gandalf) | Vindalf, Thrain,

Thekk and Thorin, | Thror, Vit and Lit,

Nyr and Nyrath,-- | now have I told--

Regin and Rathsvith-- | the list aright.

13. Fili, Kili, | Fundin, Nali,

Heptifili, | Hannar, Sviur,

Frar, Hornbori, | Fræg and Loni,

Aurvang, Jari, | Eikinskjaldi.

14. The race of the dwarfs | in Dvalin's throng

Down to Lofar | the list must I tell;

The rocks they left, | and through wet lands

They sought a home | in the fields of sand.

15. There were Draupnir | and Dolgthrasir,

Hor, Haugspori, | Hlevang, Gloin,

Dori, Ori, | Duf, Andvari,

Skirfir, Virfir, | Skafith, Ai.

16. Alf and Yngvi, | Eikinskjaldi,

Fjalar and Frosti, | Fith and Ginnar;

So for all time | shall the tale be known,

The list of all | the forbears of Lofar.

17. Then from the throng | did three come forth,

From the home of the gods, | the mighty and gracious;

Two without fate | on the land they found,

Ask and Embla, | empty of might.

18. Soul they had not, | sense they had not,

Heat nor motion, | nor goodly hue;

Soul gave Othin, | sense gave Hönir,

Heat gave Lothur | and goodly hue.

19. An ash I know, | Yggdrasil its name,

With water white | is the great tree wet;

Thence come the dews | that fall in the dales,

Green by Urth's well | does it ever grow.

20. Thence come the maidens | mighty in wisdom,

Three from the dwelling | down 'neath the tree;

Urth is one named, | Verthandi the next,--

On the wood they scored,-- | and Skuld the third.

Laws they made there, and life allotted

To the sons of men, and set their fates.

21. The war I remember, | the first in the world,

When the gods with spears | had smitten Gollveig,

And in the hall | of Hor had burned her,

Three times burned, | and three times born,

Oft and again, | yet ever she lives.

22. Heith they named her | who sought their home,

The wide-seeing witch, | in magic wise;

Minds she bewitched | that were moved by her magic,

To evil women | a joy she was.

23. On the host his spear | did Othin hurl,

Then in the world | did war first come;

The wall that girdled | the gods was broken,

And the field by the warlike | Wanes was trodden.

24. Then sought the gods | their assembly-seats,

The holy ones, | and council held,

Whether the gods | should tribute give,

Or to all alike | should worship belong.

25. Then sought the gods | their assembly-seats,

The holy ones, | and council held,

To find who with venom | the air had filled,

Or had given Oth's bride | to the giants' brood.

26. In swelling rage | then rose up Thor,--

Seldom he sits | when he such things hears,--

And the oaths were broken, | the words and bonds,

The mighty pledges | between them made.

27. I know of the horn | of Heimdall, hidden

Under the high-reaching | holy tree;

On it there pours | from Valfather's pledge

A mighty stream: | would you know yet more?

28. Alone I sat | when the Old One sought me,

The terror of gods, | and gazed in mine eyes:

"What hast thou to ask? | why comest thou hither?

Othin, I know | where thine eye is hidden."

29. I know where Othin's | eye is hidden,

Deep in the wide-famed | well of Mimir;

Mead from the pledge | of Othin each mom

Does Mimir drink: | would you know yet more?

30. Necklaces had I | and rings from Heerfather,

Wise was my speech | and my magic wisdom;

.    .    .    .    .        .    .    .    .    .

Widely I saw | over all the worlds.

31. On all sides saw I | Valkyries assemble,

Ready to ride | to the ranks of the gods;

Skuld bore the shield, | and Skogul rode next,

Guth, Hild, Gondul, | and Geirskogul.

Of Herjan's maidens | the list have ye heard,

Valkyries ready | to ride o'er the earth.

32. I saw for Baldr, | the bleeding god,

The son of Othin, | his destiny set:

Famous and fair | in the lofty fields,

Full grown in strength | the mistletoe stood.

33. From the branch which seemed | so slender and fair

Came a harmful shaft | that Hoth should hurl;

But the brother of Baldr | was born ere long,

And one night old | fought Othin's son.

34. His hands he washed not, | his hair he combed not,

Till he bore to the bale-blaze | Baldr's foe.

But in Fensalir | did Frigg weep sore

For Valhall's need: | would you know yet more?

35. One did I see | in the wet woods bound,

A lover of ill, | and to Loki like;

By his side does Sigyn | sit, nor is glad

To see her mate: | would you know yet more?

36. From the east there pours | through poisoned vales

With swords and daggers | the river Slith.

.    .    .    .    .        .    .    .    .    .

.    .    .    .    .        .    .    .    .    .

37. Northward a hall | in Nithavellir

Of gold there rose | for Sindri's race;

And in Okolnir | another stood,

Where the giant Brimir | his beer-hall had.

38. A hall I saw, | far from the sun,

On Nastrond it stands, | and the doors face north,

Venom drops | through the smoke-vent down,

For around the walls | do serpents wind.

39. I saw there wading | through rivers wild

Treacherous men | and murderers too,

And workers of ill | with the wives of men;

There Nithhogg sucked | the blood of the slain,

And the wolf tore men; | would you know yet more?

40. The giantess old | in Ironwood sat,

In the east, and bore | the brood of Fenrir;

Among these one | in monster's guise

Was soon to steal | the sun from the sky.

41. There feeds he full | on the flesh of the dead,

And the home of the gods | he reddens with gore;

Dark grows the sun, | and in summer soon

Come mighty storms: | would you know yet more?

42. On a hill there sat, | and smote on his harp,

Eggther the joyous, | the giants' warder;

Above him the cock | in the bird-wood crowed,

Fair and red | did Fjalar stand.

43. Then to the gods | crowed Gollinkambi,

He wakes the heroes | in Othin's hall;

And beneath the earth | does another crow,

The rust-red bird | at the bars of Hel.

44. Now Garm howls loud | before Gnipahellir,

The fetters will burst, | and the wolf run free;

Much do I know, | and more can see

Of the fate of the gods, | the mighty in fight.

45. Brothers shall fight | and fell each other,

And sisters' sons | shall kinship stain;

Hard is it on earth, | with mighty whoredom;

Axe-time, sword-time, | shields are sundered,

Wind-time, wolf-time, | ere the world falls;

Nor ever shall men | each other spare.

46. Fast move the sons | of Mim, and fate

Is heard in the note | of the Gjallarhorn;

Loud blows Heimdall, | the horn is aloft,

In fear quake all | who on Hel-roads are.

47. Yggdrasil shakes, | and shiver on high

The ancient limbs, | and the giant is loose;

To the head of Mim | does Othin give heed,

But the kinsman of Surt | shall slay him soon.

48. How fare the gods? | how fare the elves?

All Jotunheim groans, | the gods are at council;

Loud roar the dwarfs | by the doors of stone,

The masters of the rocks: | would you know yet more?

49. Now Garm howls loud | before Gnipahellir,

The fetters will burst, | and the wolf run free

Much do I know, | and more can see

Of the fate of the gods, | the mighty in fight.

50. From the east comes Hrym | with shield held high;

In giant-wrath | does the serpent writhe;

O'er the waves he twists, | and the tawny eagle

Gnaws corpses screaming; | Naglfar is loose.

51. O'er the sea from the north | there sails a ship

With the people of Hel, | at the helm stands Loki;

After the wolf | do wild men follow,

And with them the brother | of Byleist goes.

52. Surt fares from the south | with the scourge of branches,

The sun of the battle-gods | shone from his sword;

The crags are sundered, | the giant-women sink,

The dead throng Hel-way, | and heaven is cloven.

53. Now comes to Hlin | yet another hurt,

When Othin fares | to fight with the wolf,

And Beli's fair slayer | seeks out Surt,

For there must fall | the joy of Frigg.

54. Then comes Sigfather's | mighty son,

Vithar, to fight | with the foaming wolf;

In the giant's son | does he thrust his sword

Full to the heart: | his father is avenged.

55. Hither there comes | the son of Hlothyn,

The bright snake gapes | to heaven above;

.    .    .    .    .        .    .    .    .    .

Against the serpent | goes Othin's son.

56. In anger smites | the warder of earth,--

Forth from their homes | must all men flee;-

Nine paces fares | the son of Fjorgyn,

And, slain by the serpent, | fearless he sinks.

57. The sun turns black, | earth sinks in the sea,

The hot stars down | from heaven are whirled;

Fierce grows the steam | and the life-feeding flame,

Till fire leaps high | about heaven itself.

58. Now Garm howls loud | before Gnipahellir,

The fetters will burst, | and the wolf run free;

Much do I know, | and more can see

Of the fate of the gods, | the mighty in fight.

59. Now do I see | the earth anew

Rise all green | from the waves again;

The cataracts fall, | and the eagle flies,

And fish he catches | beneath the cliffs.

60. The gods in Ithavoll | meet together,

Of the terrible girdler | of earth they talk,

And the mighty past | they call to mind,

And the ancient runes | of the Ruler of Gods.

61. In wondrous beauty | once again

Shall the golden tables | stand mid the grass,

Which the gods had owned | in the days of old,

.    .    .    .    .        .    .    .    .    .

62. Then fields unsowed | bear ripened fruit,

All ills grow better, | and Baldr comes back;

Baldr and Hoth dwell | in Hropt's battle-hall,

And the mighty gods: | would you know yet more?

63. Then Hönir wins | the prophetic wand,

.    .    .    .    .        .    .    .    .    .

And the sons of the brothers | of Tveggi abide

In Vindheim now: | would you know yet more?

64. More fair than the sun, | a hall I see,

Roofed with gold, | on Gimle it stands;

There shall the righteous | rulers dwell,

And happiness ever | there shall they have.

65. There comes on high, | all power to hold,

A mighty lord, | all lands he rules.

.    .    .    .    .        .    .    .    .    .

.    .    .    .    .        .    .    .    .    .

66. From below the dragon | dark comes forth,

Nithhogg flying | from Nithafjoll;

The bodies of men on | his wings he bears,

The serpent bright: | but now must I sink.

Translated by HENRY ADAMS BELLOWS, 1936

VOLUSPÁ (The Prophecy of the Seeress)

Hear me, all ye hallowed beings,
Both high and low of Heimdall's children:
Thou wilt, Valfather, that I well set forth
The fates of the world which as first I recall.

I call to mind the kin of etins
Which long ago did give me life.
Nine worlds I know, the nine abodes
Of the glorious world-tree the ground beneath.

In earliest times did Ymir live:
Was not sea nor land nor salty waves,
Neither earth was there nor upper heaven,
But a gaping nothing, and green things nowhere.

Was the land then lifted aloft by Bur's sons
Who made Mithgarth, the matchless earth;
Shone from the south the sun on dry land,
On the ground then grew the greensward soft.

From the south the sun, by the side of the moon,
Heaved his right hand over heaven's rim;
The sun knew not what seat he had,
The stars knew not what stead they held,
The moon knew not what might she had.

Then gathered together the gods for counsel,
The holy hosts, and held converse;
To night and new moon their names they gave,
The morning named, and midday also,
Forenoon and evening, to order the year.

On Itha Plain met the mighty gods;
Shrines and temples they timbered high,
They founded forges to fashion gold,
Tongs they did shape and tools they made;

Played at draughts in the garth:right glad they were,
Nor aught lacked they of lustrous gold --
Till maidens three from the thurses came,
Awful in might from etin-home.

Then gathered together the gods for counsel,
The holy hosts, and held converse:
Who the deep-dwelling dwarfs was to make
Of Brimir's blood and Bláin's bones.

Mótsognir rose, mightiest ruler
Of the kin of dwarfs, but Durin next;
Molded many manlike bodies
The dwarfs under earth, as Durin bade them.

Nýi and Nithi, Northri and Suthri,
Austri and Vestri, Althjólf, Dvalin,
Nár and Náin, Níping, Dáin,
Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Nóri,
Án and Onar, Ái, Mjóthvitnir.

Veig and Gandálf, Vindálf, Thráin,
Thekk and Thorin, Thrór, Vit, and Lit,
Nár and Regin, Nýráth and Ráthsvith;
Now is reckoned the roster of dwarfs.

Fíli, Kíli, Fundin, Náli,
Heptifíli, Hanar, Svíur,
Frár, Hornbori, Fræg and Lóni,
Aurvang, Jari, Eikinskjaldi.

The dwarfs I tell now in Dvalin's host,
Down to Lofar -- for listening wights --
They who hied them from halls of stone
Over sedgy shores to sandy plains.

There was Draupnir and Dólgthrasir,
Hár and Haugspori, Hlévang, Glói,
Skirvir, Virvir, Skafith, Ái,
Álf and Yngvi, Eikinskjaldi,

Fjalar and Frosti, Finn and Ginnar.
Will ever be known, while earth doth last,
The lines of dwarfs to Lofar down.

To the coast then came, kind and mighty,
From the gathered gods three great Æsir;
On land they found, of little strength,
Ask and Embla, unfated yet.

Sense they possessed not, soul they had not,
Being nor bearing, nor blooming hue;
Soul gave Óthin, sense gave Hönir,
Being, Lóthur, and blooming hue.

An ash I know, hight Yggdrasil,
The mighty tree moist with white dews;
Thence come the floods that fall down;
Evergreen o'ertops Urth's well this tree.

Thence wise maidens three betake them --
Urth one is hight, the other, Verthandi,
Skuld the third: they scores did cut,
They laws did make, they lives did choose:
For the children of men they marked their fates.

I ween the first war in the world was this,
When the gods Gullveig gashed with their spears,
And in the hall of Hár burned her --
Three times burned they the thrice reborn,
Ever and anon: even now she liveth.

Heith she was hight where to houses she came,
The wise seeress, and witchcraft plied --
Cast spells where she could, cast spells on the mind:
To wicked women she was welcome ever.

Then gathered together the gods for counsel,
The holy hosts, and held converse:
Should the Æsir a truce with tribute buy,
Or should all gods share in the feast.

His spear had Óthin sped o'er the host:
The first of feuds was thus fought in the world;
Was broken in battle the breastwork of Ásgarth,
Fighting Vanir trod the field of battle.

Then gathered together the gods for counsel,
The holy hosts, and held converse:
Who had filled the air with foul treason,
And to uncouth etins Óth's wife given.

Thewy Thór then overthrew the foe --
He seldom sits when of such he hears:
Were sworn oaths broken, and solemn vows,
Gods' plighted troth, the pledges given.

Where Heimdall's horn is hid, she knows,
Under heaven-touching, holy world-tree;
On it are shed showery falls
From Fjolnir's pledge: know ye further, or how?

Alone she sat out when the lord of gods,
Óthin the old, her eye did seek:
What seekest thou to know, why summon me?
Well know I, Ygg, where thy eye is hidden:
In the wondrous well of Mímir;
Each morn Mímir his mead doth drink
Out of Fjolnir's pledge: know ye further, or how?

Gave Ygg to her arm rings and gems
For her seeress' sight and soothsaying:
The fates I fathom, yet farther I see,
See far and wide the worlds about.

The valkyries' flock from afar she beholds,
Ready to ride to the realm of men:
Skuld held her shield, Skogul likewise,
Guth, Hild, Gondul, and Geirskogul:
For thus are hight Herjan's maidens,
Ready to ride o'er reddened battlefields.

I saw for Baldr, the blessed god,
Ygg's dearest son, what doom is hidden:
Green and glossy, there grew aloft,
The trees among, the mistletoe.

The slender-seeming sapling became
A fell weapon when flung by Hoth;
But Baldr's brother was born full soon:
But one night old slew him Óthin's son.

Neither cleansed his hands nor combed his hair
Till Baldr's slayer he sent to Hel;
But Frigg did weep in Fensalir
The fateful deed: know ye further, or how?

A captive lies in the kettle-grove,
Like to lawless Loki in shape;
There sits Sigyn, full sad in mind,
By her fettered mate: know ye further, or how?

From the east there flows through fester-dales,
A stream hight Slíth, filled with swords and knives.

Waist-deep wade there through waters swift
Mainsworn men and murderous,
Eke those who betrayed a trusted friend's wife;
There gnaws Níthhogg naked corpses,
There the Wolf rends men -- wit ye more, or how?

Stood in the north on the Nitha Fields
A dwelling golden which the dwarfs did own;
Another stood on Ókólnir,
That etin's beer-hall, who is Brimir hight.

A hall she saw, from the sun so far,
On Ná Strand's shore: turn north its doors;
Drops of poison drip through the louver,
It walls are clad with coiling snakes.

In the east sat the old one, in the Iron-Woods,
Bred there the bad brood of Fenrir;
Will one of these, worse than they all,
The sun swallow, in seeming a wolf.

He feeds on the flesh of fallen men,
With their blood sullies the seats of the gods;
Will grow swart the sunshine in summers thereafter,
The weather, woe-bringing: do ye wit more, or how?

His harp striking, on hill there sat
Gladsome Eggthér, he who guards the ogress;
O'er him gaily in the gallows tree
Crowed the fair red cock which is Fjalar hight.

Crowed o'er the gods Gullinkambi;
Wakes he the heroes who in Herjan dwell;
Another crows the earth beneath
In the halls of Hel, of hue dark red.

Garm bays loudly before Gnipa cave,
Breaks his fetters and freely runs.
The fates I fathom, yet farther I see:
Of the mighty gods the engulfing doom.

Brothers will battle to bloody end,
And sisters'sons their sibs betray;
Woe's in the world, much wantonness;
Axe-age, sword-age -- sundered are shields --
Wind-age, wolf-age, ere the world crumbles;
Will the spear of no man spare the other.

Mímir's sons dance; the downfall bodes
When blares the gleaming Gjallarhorn;
Loud blows Heimdall, with horn aloft;
In Hel's dark hall horror spreadeth,
Once more Óthin with Mím's head speaketh
Ere Surt's sib swallows him.

Trembles the towering tree Yggdrasil,
It leaves sough loudly: unleashed is the etin.

What ails the Æsir and what the alfs?
In uproar all etins -- are the Æsir met.
At the gates of their grots the wise dwarfs groan
In their fell fastnesses: wit ye further, or how?

Garm bays loudly before Gnipa cave,
Breaks his fetters and freely runs.
The fates I fathom, yet farther I see:
Of the mighty gods the engulfing doom.

Fares Hrym from the east, holding his shield;
The Mithgarth-Worm in mighty rage
Scatters the waves; screams the eagle,
His nib tears the dead; Naglfar loosens.

Sails a ship from the east with shades from Hel;
O'er the ocean stream steers it Loki;
In the wake of the Wolf rush witless hordes
Who with baleful Byleist's brother do fare.

Comes Surt from the south with the singer-of-twigs,
The war god's sword like a sun doth shine;
The tall hills totter, the trolls stagger,
Men fare to Hel, the heavens rive.

Another woe awaiteth Hlín,
When forth goes Óthin to fight the Wolf,
And the slayer of Beli to battle with Surt:
Then Frigg's husband will fall lifeless.

Strides forth Víthar, Valfather's son,
The fearless fighter, Fenrir to slay;
To the heart he hews the Hvethrungs's son;
Avenged is then Víthar's father.

Comes then Mjolnir's mighty wielder;
Gapes the grisly earth-girdling Serpent
When strides forth Thór to stay the Worm.

Mightily mauls Mithgarth's warder --
Shall all wights in the world wander from home -- ;
Back falls nine steps Fjorgyn's offspring --
Nor fears for his fame -- from the frightful worm.

'Neath sea the land sinketh, the sun dimmeth,
From the heavens fall the fair bright stars;
Gusheth forth stream and gutting fire,
To very heaven soar the hurtling flames.

Garm bays loudly before Gnipa cave,
Breaks his fetters and freely runs.
The fates I fathom, yet farther I see:
Of the mighty gods the engulfing doom.

I see green again with growing things
The earth arise from out of the sea;
Fell torrents flow, overflies them the eagle,
On hoar highlands which hunts for fish.

Again the Æsir on Itha Plain meet,
And speak of the mighty Mithgarth-Worm --
Again go over the great world-doom,
And Fimbultýr's unfathomed runes.

Then in the grass the golden figures,
The far-famed ones, will be found again,
Which they had owned in olden days.

On unsown acres the ears will grow.
All ill grow better; will Baldr come then.
Both he and Hoth will in Hropt's hall dwell,
The war gods' fane: do ye wit more, or how?

Then will Hönir handle the blood-wands,
And Ygg's brothers' sons will forever dwell
In wide Wind-Home: do ye wit more, or how?

I see a hall than the sun more fair,
Thatched with red gold, which is Gimlé hight.
There will the gods all guiltless throne,
And live forever in ease and bliss.

Adown cometh to the doom of the world
The great godhead which governs all.
Comes the darksome dragon flying,
Níthhogg, upward from the Nitha fells;
He bears in his pinions as the plains he o'erflies,
Naked corpses: now he will sink.

Quoted from The Poetic Edda © 1962 by Lee M Hollander Fifth paperback printing 1994 University of Texas Press, Box 7819, Austin, Texas, 78713-7819ISBN 0-292-76499-5LCCCN 61-10045

Hic Situs Est Phaeton

Hic situs est Phaeton, currus auriga paterni,

Quem si non tenuit, magnis tamen excidit ausis.- Ovid.

"Here lies Phaeton, the driver of his father's chariot, which if he
failed to manage, yet he fell in a great undertaking."

Proverbial expression from Bullfinch's Mythology

Success and Happiness

"Don't aim at success -- the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long run -- in the long run, I say! -- success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think of it."

Life Holds a Potential Meaning

"...life holds a potential meaning under any conditions, even the most miserable one."

The Misery of Our Time

"...I do not at all see in the bestseller status of my book an achievement and accomplishment on my part, but rather an expression of the misery of our time..."

The Heaventree of Stars

What spectacle confronted them when they, first the host, then the guest, emerged silently, doubly dark, from obscurity by a passage from the rere of the house into the penumbra of the garden?

The heaventree of stars hung with humid nightblue fruit.

With what meditations did Bloom accompany his demonstration to his companion of various constellations?

Meditations of evolution increasingly vaster: of the moon invisible in incipient lunation, approaching perigee: of the infinite lattiginous scintillating uncondensed milky way, discernible by daylight by an observer placed at the lower end of a cylindrical vertical shaft 5000 ft deep sunk from the surface towards the centre of the earth: of Sirius (alpha in Canis Maior) 10 lightyears (57,000,000,000,000 miles) distant and in volume 900 times the dimension of our planet: of Arcturus: of the precession of equinoxes: of Orion with belt and sextuple sun theta and nebula in which 100 of our solar systems could be contained: of moribund and of nascent new stars such as Nova in 1901: of our system plunging towards the constellation of Hercules: of the parallax or parallactic drift of socalled fixed stars, in reality evermoving wanderers from immeasurably remote eons to infinitely remote futures in comparison with which the years, threescore and ten, of allotted human life formed a parenthesis of infinitesimal brevity.

Of the eons of geological periods recorded in the stratifications of the earth: of the myriad minute entomological organic existences concealed in cavities of the earth, beneath removable stones, in hives and mounds, of microbes, germs, bacteria, bacilli, spermatozoa: of the incalculable trillions of billions of millions of imperceptible molecules contained by cohesion of molecular affinity in a single pinhead: of the universe of human serum constellated with red and white bodies, themselves universes of void space constellated with other bodies, each, in continuity, its universe of divisible component bodies of which each was again divisible in divisions of redivisible component bodies, dividends and divisors ever diminishing without actual division till, if the progress were carried far enough, nought nowhere was never reached.

The Priest and the King

"My centre of gravity is displaced. I have forgotten the trick. Let us sit down somewhere and discuss. Struggle for life is the law of existence but but human philirenists, notably the tsar and the king of England, have invented arbitration. _(He taps his brow)_ But in here it is I must kill the priest and the king."

When Something Can Call Your Genius Father

"Francis was reminding Stephen of years before when they had been at school together in Conmee's time. He asked about Glaucon, Alcibiades, Pisistratus. Where were they now? Neither knew. You have spoken of the past and its phantoms, Stephen said. Why think of them? If I call them into life across the waters of Lethe will not the poor ghosts troop to my call? Who supposes it? I, Bous Stephanoumenos, bullockbefriending bard, am lord and giver of their life. He encircled his gadding hair with a coronal of vineleaves, smiling at Vincent. That answer and those leaves, Vincent said to him, will adorn you more fitly when something more, and greatly more, than a capful of light odes can call your genius father. All who wish you well hope this for you. All desire to see you bring forth the work you meditate. I heartily wish you may not fail them."

Those Small Creatures Within Us

"We are means to those small creatures within us and nature has other ends than we."

James Joyce (1882 to 1941), Ulysses

Blue Girls

Twirling your blue skirts, travelling the sward 
Under the towers of your seminary, 
Go listen to your teachers old and contrary 
Without believing a word. 

Tie the white fillets then about your hair 
And think no more of what will come to pass 
Than bluebirds that go walking on the grass 
And chattering on the air. 

Practice your beauty, blue girls, before it fail; 
And I will cry with my loud lips and publish 
Beauty which all our power shall never establish, 
It is so frail. 

For I could tell you a story which is true; 
I know a woman with a terrible tongue, 
Blear eyes fallen from blue, 
All her perfections tarnished -- yet it is not long 
Since she was lovelier than any of you.

John Crowe Ransom (1888 to 1974)

The Human Understanding

"The human understanding, from its peculiar nature, easily supposes a greater degree of order and equality in things than it really finds"

Francis Bacon (1561 to 1626), The New Organon, 45

Happiness is Never Grand

"Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the over-compensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn't nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand."

The Right to be Unhappy

"But I like the inconveniences."

"We don't," said the Controller. "We prefer to do things comfortably."

"But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin."

"In fact," said Mustapha Mond, "you're claiming the right to be unhappy."

"All right then," said the Savage defiantly, "I'm claiming the right to be unhappy."

"Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; the right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind." There was a long silence.

"I claim them all," said the Savage at last.

Mustapha Mond shrugged his shoulders. "You're welcome," he said.

The World of Dew

The world of dew

Is a world of dew

And yet, and yet...

Kobayashi Issa

(1763 to 1828)

The Dream of Our Age

"So I fled west from the fact, and in the West, at the end of History, the Last Man on that Last Coast, on my hotel bed, I had discovered the dream. That dream was the dream that all life is but the dark heave of blood and the twitch of the nerve. When you flee as far as you can flee, you will always find that dream, which is the dream of our age. At first, it s always a nightmare and horrible, but in the end it may be, in a special way, rather bracing and tonic. At least, it was so for me for a certain time. It was bracing because after the dream I felt that, in a way, Anne Stanton did not exist. The words Anne Stanton were simply a name for a peculiarly complicated piece of mechanism which should mean nothing whosoever to Jack Burden, who himself was simply another rather complicated piece of mechanism. At that time, when I first discovered that view of things -- really discovered, in my own way and not from any book -- I felt that I had discovered the secret source of all strength and all endurance. That dream solves all problems.

At first, it was, as I have said, rather bracing and tonic. For after the dream there is no reason why you should not go back and face the fact which you have fled from (even if the fact seems to be that you have, by digging up the truth about the past, handed over Anne Stanton to Willie Start), for any place to which you may flee will now be like the place from which you have fled, and you might as well go back, after all, to the place where you belong, for nothing was your fault or anybody's fault, for things are always as they are. Any you can go back in good spirits, for you will have learned tow very great truths. First, that you cannot lose what you have never had. Second, that you are never guilty of a crime which you did not commit. so there s innocence and a new start in the West, after all. 

If you believe the dream you dream when you go there."

Robert Penn Warren, All the King's Men