[1.] Whilom, the gods of slaughter,
On feasting bent,
And foaming cups,
Together shook their wands divine,
And search'd the victim's blood
For Æger's promise,
But cauldron saw they none
In Æger's hall.

[2.] The tyrant of the rock*
Sat and grinn'd horrible
A giant-smile on his new guest;
But Odin's son
Met undismay'd his eye:
"The gods demand
"Speed of thy promis'd feast.

* The poet jumps the delegation of Thor to Æger's hall to inquire into the cause of his delay.

[3.] Displeasure seized
The bristly feature
At his demand:
The giant plans revenge.
" A cauldron, then,
" I ask of Sifia's mate,*
" To brew the beverage meet
" For Asa's jolly race."

*Sifa, or Siva, was the wife of Thor.

[4.] Gods not, not goddesses,
Nor art divine,
Could find a cauldron me;
Till Tyr;* to Thor,
In whispers told,
The gladsome words:

*Hymer's son, at that time a guest of the gods.

[5.] " What way the icebrook meets
" The orient beam,
" At heaven's utmost verge,
" My father's might
" Grim Hymer dwells,
" Lord of a cauldron's
" Mile-wide orb*."

* The Norse word is ravst, rastar; from which probably the Ruffian verst.

[6.] Knowst thou how to obtain*
This boiler of the lymph?
"I know, my friend, if Craft
"Unite us both."
[7.] From Asgard strait
The mighty drove
To seek the giant's hall.

*Thor's question.

In went the gold-horned rams,
Stabl'd by Thor's own hand:
In went the guests
At Hymer's lofty door.
[8.] His grandam, dread,
Tyr soon espied,
Nodding dismay from heads
Full hundred nine. *

*Compare this with the Læstrygonian queen. Homer's Odyssey. 1, x.

But soon another came
Gold-clad, with eyebrows fair,
A sparkling cup she bore.
And welcome for her son:
[9.] "Heroic two, (she said)
"The giants friends or foes
"Behind the cauldron's roof

 "Come, let me place you both;
"For oft my lover darts
"The niggard's blasting glance
"Against his sudden guest."
[10.] Eve flitted on,
Ere from the chace
Stern Hymer found his hall.

As he bestrode
The threshold,
The ice-rocks thunder'd round:
The forest of his cheeks
Was hoar with sleet.

[11.] "Hymer all hail!
"Rejoice! for to thy hall
"Thy son is come
"From his long pilgrimage :
"With him is come
"A foe far-fam'd,
"A friend of human race,
" Nam'd Veorr.*

*Another name of Thor, of doubtful explication.

[12.] "See where they wait
"At coy distance,
"Beneath the pillared fir
"Thy aspect dread."
The giant shot his glance ;
The pillar burst,
And with it burst
The topmost beam.

[13.] Down-dashed rolled cauldrons eight;
But hammered unto proof,
One cauldron rolled uubruised ;
Forth came the strangers.
But the gray fiend
Eyed only his new foe.

[14.] Fell boding cowed his heart
As bold before him stood
The giant-queller.
Three bulls select
Were placed before the hall;
The giant bade his son
Prepare the meal.

[15.] Their heads sunk under the blade.
Their limbs were spread to the flame;
But Sifa's mate
Devoured two alone
Of Hymer's bulls
Before he sought his couch.

[16.] The eater of yore
Thought no scorn
Of Thor's repast :
"Yet swims, I ween *
"The food that shall suffice
"To feed us three again."

*The giant's words

[17.] To seek the sea
Veorr agreed.
And launch the fishy bait;
"Then seek the herdt,
"If thy heart dare,
"Thou giant-bruiser,
"The herd seek for a bait."
[18.] "Mv mind foretells
"The bull will yield
"A ready bait for thee*"
Off to the wood
The hero went,
And soon there seized
A swarthy bull.

*By this it appears that the bulls of Hymer were savage, and his advice insidious.

[19.] The seat sublime
Of his two horns
The giant-bruiser wrench'd
Sheer from his neck.
"Thy deeds are worse*
"Then erst was thy repose!"
Exclaimed the lord of rocks.

*The words of Hymer, when he saw Thor return with the bull's head.

[20.] Boldly to spread the ships
Full wing and seek the main
The king of rams proposed
Now to his shaggy host;
But the main sea
The giant would not seek.

[21.] Up drew Hymer's might
With angle bold
Single two whales at once;
But in the stern
Odin's great son
Prepared his crafty line.

[22.] Among the roaring rocks
The serpent-queller
Baited his hook
With the bull's massy head:
Yawning snapt
At the sly bait
The worm,* curse of the gods,
Girdle of earth's abyss.

1790 Henry Fuseli

* An epithet, which always marks the serpent of Midgard. See our last number, p. 340. The giant-snake, supposed to inhabit the Northern Ocean, seems to have given origin to this enormous image.  

[23.] Up drew Thor
With mighty arm
The glistering snake
Up to the ship's high side:
His hammer smote
The rocky crest;
Slow battery stunned
The wolf's dire brother*

*By this is meant the wolf Fenrir.

[24.] Down rushed the rocks!
Wide howled the dens around!
Together shrunk
Old  stedfast earth!
Till in the wave
The serpent plunged.

[25.] Dejected sat
Hymer, and mute,
As they rowed back,
And wayward moved
His solitary oar.

[26.] "Wilt thou, he said,
"Share half my work?
"Bear home these whales*
"Or the flood-bruising bark
"Moor to its post!"

* The giants words. 

[27.] Thor seized the prow
Rapid, and lodged the ship ;
Nor oar forgot,
Nor Pump: