PROPHETESS. What call unknown, what charms presume And drags me from the realms of night? Who is he, with voice unblest, That calls me from the bed of rest? ODIN. A traveller, to thee unknown, Is he that calls, a warrior's son. Thou the deeds of light shalt know; Tell me what is done below, Var. V. 27. What call unknown] What voice unknown. 30 35 MS. 40 V. 29. My troubled] A weary. MS. V. 35. He] This. MS. V. 27. "What power art thou, who from below Hast made me rise." Dryd. K. Arth. vi. V. 33. "Till cold December comes with driving rain." Dryden. Virg. G. i. 301. Luke. V. 34. This and the two following verses are not in the original, and therefore Gray probably borrowed them from the Thessalian Incantation in Lucan. Ph. vi. 820: "Sic postquam fata peregit, stat vultu moestus tacito, mortemque reposcit." See Quart. Rev. No. xxii. p. 314. "Let me, let me rest." Pope. "Let me, let me drop my freight." Dryden. Sec. Mag. Rogers. "Let me, let me freeze again to death." Dryden. K. Arth. V. 40. Odin was anxious about the fate of his son, Balder, who had dreamed he was soon to die. He was killed by Odin's other son, Hoder, who was himself slain by Vali, the son of Odin and Rinda, consonant with this prophecy. See the Edda. For whom yon glitt'ring board is spread, PROPHETESS. Mantling in the goblet see ODIN. Once again my call obey: What dangers Odin's child await, Var. V. 41. Yon] The. Ms. V. 48. Reach] Touch. Ms. Once again arise and say." MS. V. 42. "Non movet aurea pompa thori." Prudent. π. ΣT. iii. v. iii. "Aurato lecto." Juv. Sat. vi. V. 43. "The spiced goblets mantled high." T. Warton. Works, ii. 74. V. 50. "Quid, oro, me post Lethæa pocula, jam Stygiis paludibus innatantem ad momentariæ vitæ reducitis officia? Desine jam, precor, desine, ac me in meam quietem permitte,' Apul. Memor. ii. 40. quoted in the Quarterly Rev. No. xxii. p. 314. V. 51. Women were looked upon by the Gothic nations as having a peculiar insight into futurity; and some there were that made profession of magic arts and divination. These travelled round the country, and were received in every house with great respect and honour. Such a woman bore the name PROPHETESS. In Hoder's hand the hero's doom; ODIN. Prophetess, my spell obey: Once again arise, and say, By whom shall Hoder's blood be spilt? PROPHETESS. In the caverns of the west, By Odin's fierce embrace comprest, Var. V. 59, 60. Prophetess, &c.] "Once again my call obey, Prophetess, arise and say." MS. 55 60 V. 61, 62. Who th' avenger, &c.] These verses are transposed in Ms. of Volva Seidkona or Spakona. The dress of Thorbiorga, one of these prophetesses, is described at large in Eirik's Rauda Sogu, (apud Bartholin. lib. i. cap. iv. p. 688.) "She had on a blue vest spangled all over with stones, a necklace of glass beads, and a cap made of the skin of a black lamb lined with white cat-skin. She leaned on a staff adorned with brass, with a round head set with stones; and was girt with an Hunlandish belt, at which hung her pouch full of magical instruments. Her buskins were of rough calf-skin, bound on with thongs studded with knobs of brass, and her gloves of white cat-skin, the fur turned inwards," &c. They were also called Fiolkyngi, or Fiolkunnug, i. e. Multi-scia; and Visindakona, i. e. Oraculorum Mulier; Nornir, i. e. Parcæ. Gray. V. 58. "When my weary lips I close V. 66. King Harold made (according to the singular custom of his time) a solemn vow never to clip or comb his hair, till he should have extended his sway over the whole country. A wond'rous boy shall Rinda bear, ODIN. Yet a while my call obey: What virgins these, in speechless woe, Var. V. 65. Wond'rous] Giant. MS. Herbert. Iceland. Translat. p. 39. In the Dying Song of Asbiorn, p. 52: "Know, gentle mother, know, Thou wilt not comb my flowing hair, When summer sweets return, In Denmark's vallies, Svanvhide fair!" V. 75. "It is not certain," says Mr. Herbert, "what Odin means by the question concerning the weeping virgins; but it has been supposed that it alludes to the embassy afterwards sent by Frigga to try to redeem Balder from the infernal regions, and that Odin betrays his divinity by mentioning what had not yet happened." Iceland. Translat. p. 48. The object of this embassy was frustrated by the perfidy of Loke, who, having assumed (as was supposed) the shape of an old woman, refused to join in the general petition. "I Lok (she said) will weep with dry eyes the funeral of Balder. Let all things, living or dead, weep if they will, but let Hela keep her prey." After this, Loke hid himself, built a house among the mountains, and made a net. Odin, however, found out his hiding-place, and the gods assembled to take him. He, seeing this, burnt his net, and changed himself into a salmon. After some trouble, Thor caught him by the tail; and this is the reason why salmons, ever after, have had their tails so fine That bend to earth their solemn brow, And snowy veils that float in air? Tell me whence their sorrows rose: Then I leave thee to repose. PROPHETESS. Ha! no traveller art thou, ODIN. No boding maid of skill divine Var. V. 77. That, flaxen] Who, flowing. мS. V. 83. The mightiest of the mighty line. MS. 80 and thin. They bound him with chains, and suspended the serpent Skada over his head, whose venom falls upon his face drop by drop. His wife Siguna sits by his side, catches the drops as they fall from his face in a basin, which she empties as often as it is filled. He will remain in chains till the end of the world, or, as the Icelanders call it, the Twilight of the Gods. To this the prophetess alludes in the last stanza. See Butler. Hor. Bibl. ii. 194. V. 76. This and the following verse are not in the Latin translation. V. 82. "Great Love! I know thee now, Eldest of the Gods, art thou." Dryden. K. Arth. Rogers. V. 86. In the Latin, "mater trium gigantum: " probably Angerbode, who from her name seems to be "no prophetess of good; " and who bore to Loke, as the Edda says, three children, the wolf Fenris, the great serpent of Midgard, and Hela, all of them called giants in that system of mythology. Mason. Sams. Agon. 1247, "I dread him not, nor all his giant-brood. Luke. V. 88. In the original, this and the three following lines are represented by this couplet: |