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Valfodur´s
Grief
Yea, I shall rage at the long one
and the long one shall rage at me:
for worked he not to bring my doom
when he climbed aloft in the old ash tree?
When he climbed aloft in the old ash tree,
where once it was I hung so high
to reach beyond the ken of gods!
And worked he not my son should die?
And worked he not my son should die
by shaping of the mistle-dart -
that tiny bough, too young to swear -
and shoot it straight into his heart?
To shoot it into Baldur’s heart
and send him straight to deepest Hel:
whom all the worlds could only praise...
who made a mother love too well.
*** *** ***
Still, I shall laugh at the long one,
though the long one laughs at me,
when we lie dead on Vigrid plain
and our blood flows to the sea -
With wyrm’s head stove
and wolf’s jaw ripped
and entrails from his children stripped
and Sleipnir running free -
When he lies dead
by Heimdal’s head
and the sisters come for me.
When the sisters come to take me hence
from where the hawk and eagles feast,
while works of As and holy Van
go rolling to the mist -
from Hlidskialf to Fensalir,
where a lord and lady kissed...
*** *** ***
For this I learn from the long one,
though the long one woundeth me:
we cannot work to ‘scape our doom -
some things should not be;
That nothing should forever stand,
but everything must die;
and nothing can escape from Hel
though all the worlds should cry.
Though all the worlds should drown in tears -
both tears and laughter fly.
*** *** ***
Yea, I shall drink to the long one
and the long one shall drink with me,
to see the sun on Gimle’s roof
emerge from out the sea.
The fields emerging from the seas
and growing of themselves.
Mjolnir swung in Modhi’s hands
for men and dwarfs and elves.
Mjolnir swung in Magni’s hands
over all the blistered bones
and all within the tree shall see
their children coming home.
And all within the tree shall see
their children claim their own.
© 2004 Math Jones, Arnstede Hearth
Hear the poem performed by Math Jones on his Digital Album, Eaglespit
Image: © Harri Perälä - Art Gallery, used with permission