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This is NOT a
translation of Völuspá, but an original poem loosely based on it.
Prowett's poem is
clearly a revision of "An
Imitation of the Prophecy of the Edda"
published anonymously
in "The Vision: A Poem ...with other Pieces" (1797), p. 33
From the caverns of the North,
I hear a voice of Fate send forth!
Hear, ye Nations, silence hold!
I the volume dark unfold
—I the dread decree reveal,
Which the steadfast globe shall feel:
2
When the mouldering Earth decays;
Wben revolving nights and days,
Now their destin'd course have run;
Then the great, unwearied Sun,
From the mansions of the sky,
Shall the deeds of guilt descry,
Which pollute'th' affrighted earth;
Crimes of more than mortal birth:
Then the Son shall raise his knife
'Gainst the trembling Parent's life;
Vain the mournful suppliant's prayer;
Vain the sad imploring tear;
Faith no more shall mortals bind:
Lust and rapine unconfin'd
Shall the marriage-vow profane,
And the sacred vesture stain:
Till corruption, spreading wide
Pours its unrestrained tide;
And beneath th' o'erwhelming flood,
Sink the valiant, wise, and good.
Then the day by Heaven decreed,
Shall avenge each impious deed:
Lo! the glowing orb of light,
Sudden fades in thickest night:
Nor the mournful, cheerless gloom,
Twinkling stars and moon illume;
Lo! the aërial realms around,
Peals and dismal moans resound;
Fire and water, earth and wind,
Rush, in furious conflict join'd ;
Till the dread, devouring flame;
Victor ride o'er nature's frame;
And where once Creation mil'd,
Lies a pathless, cheerless wild.
O'er the vanish'd place of things,
Horror brood with raven wings.
4
Then the work of fury done,
When his destin'd race is run,
And his thirst of vengeance o'er,
Lok* shall feel th' almighty power;
And in awful silence wait,
Till the hour which seals his fate.
He, with pangs, the end shall see,
Of his Monster-progeny;
Ϯ
Who shall rush with impious might,
'Gainst the warrior Gods±
in
fight.
* Lok
was the Evil Principle among the Scandinavians; like the Arimanes of
the Persians, he was supposed to he in continual enmity with the Gods, or posterity of Odin.
Ϯ
These were
the
wolf Fenris; Hela, or the Goddess of
Death;
and the Great Serpent, who wound himself round the
earth.
± These
were the Deities who were supposed to govern the
created system.
5
Then with inward frenzy torn,
All*
the Giant brood shall mourn;
Who in headlong rout shall fly,
Thro' the Seas and flaming Sky;
Till in smoke and smouldering fire,
They, with horror struck, expire.
OdinϮ
too must yield to fate:
Death shall e'en the Brave await.
Then a voice±
is heard afar,
Stilling all the rage of war;
*Under
this name are comprehended the Giants of the Frost
and the Genii: the first were descended from the Giant Ymir,
who was formed of congealed drops of'moistnre by the breath of
the Almighty power; the Genii inhabited a globe of Fire.
ϮThe
supreme Deity of the Goths and Celts, the Hesus of
Lucan;
from him many of the Deities worshipped
by the Scandinavians were descended.
±Yet from the Voluspa it should seem that the
Scandinavians
believed in a Being superior to Odin: who existed before the
world, and after its destruction was to restore all things.
6
Bidding tumult, discord cease;
Dawn of everlasting peace.
Bound in adamantine chain,
Lok,
the Eternal shall constrain,
To the silent shades to go ;
To the Realms*
of grief and woe.
In the Dragon's
scaly Pride;
He his
hateful form shall hide;
There with
pinions stretch'd abroad,
Hover o'er his dark abode;
While beneath his
griesly wing,
Ghastly shrieks and groans shall ring;
Where
ill
billows dark and deep,
Never lull'd by soothing sleep,
*Naastronde, the Hell of the Scandinavians
7
Guilty captives
mourn their doom,
Torn from
out the
sheltering
tomb,
Plung'd
amid th' infernal
sea,
Through the vast Eternity.
On the never
dying groan,
On the hopeless,
hollow moan,
Lok with bitter joy shall feed;
Yet himself shall
inward
breed,
Fiercer torments in his breast,
By corroding pangs
possest :
For the
varied
forms
of
ill,
Which the world's
wide circuit
fill,
To his
bosom
shall
return;
There with
ceaseless
fury burn.
Then a new-horn
earth
and
skies,
From the dark profound
shall
rise;
Never
more
the
foaming
main
Shall
assert
his
stormy
reign;
8
And the
yawning
gulphs
disclose,
Where
the
warriors'
bones
repose;
Who in perils
ever
tost,
Midst
the
shock
of
waves were
lost.
Then nor evening's
murky
veil,
Shall the deeds of guilt conceal;
Nor o'er
Nature's
works
display'd
Cast
an universal
shade;
Nor
within
her ghostly
hour,
Safe
beneath ber
sheltering
power,
Demons
hollow-ey'd appear,
To the starting sons of Fear.
But
a city,
heavenly
bright,
Seat of empyreal
light;
Domes
of crystal,
towers
of gold,
Shall
the
raptur'd
eye behold;
Glittering
streams
of
silver
sheen,
Groves
for
ever
vernal
green;
9
Many
a
meadow's
flowery
bed,
Many
a mountain's
cloud-topp'd
head,
Where
the
favor'd
few
remain,
Free
from
anguish,
care,
or
pain;
Whom in
peril's
trying bour,
After
death
th'
Eternal
Power
From
the scenes
of
suffering
bore:
Landed
on yon
tranquil
shore,
O'er the
sorrows
of the past,
Many
a
thought
they
back
shall
cast;
Blest
with
joy's
unsullied
beams:
Which
in short-lived,
fading
gleams,
From
the
fount
of
rapture
flow,
To the darken'd
world
below.
[Historic
Translations of Individual Eddic Poems]
[Völuspá:
A Study Guide]
[Germanic Mythology]
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