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Voluspd II9
more times. The poem demonstrates that he knew how
to look at nature, and he undoubtedly used the company
of other wise men to talk to them of serious matters. Nor
can one doubt that his experience of life was great and
hard. The man who makes the destruction and fiery
baptism of Ragnarok into a gospel of joy has at some time
been in such troubles as to make him feel that all
existence is worthless. No one can guess with any
certainty what these troubles were. But it cannot be
a very out-of-the-way guess that, like Egill, he had lost
a son and had to fight a similar battle to come to terms
with life. There is nowhere such tenderness in V oluspd
as when it speaks of Baldr, 6l'5inn's child, and his mother's
grief at his death.s- It might also have been a personal
experience which caused oathbreaking (in breach of a
promise of safety) to overshadow all other crimes in the
poem's outlook on life. B3 Tenderness goes hand in hand
with severity and a manly temper. Oathbreakers and
murderers receive their due reward, Baldr and 6l'5inn are
avenged, and the gods fight overwhelming opposition to
the uttermost, even though they have no hope of
victory.v-
The poet had been brought up to believe in the lEsir.
The mythology of V oluspd is neither a game nor a pretence.
It is the truth which forms the basis of the life of the soul,
and which is moved by all new influences. In the
difficulties of life the poet first sought the way which this
faith provided. I cannot therefore avoid giving some
.. Cf. Finnur ]6nsson, Voluspa (I9II), 47. Olsen points out 'Til Eddakvadene',
Arkiv xxx (I9I4), I35, that in three places in Voluspd. (st. 33, 35, 53)
"the poet gives expression to his sympathy by delineating the grief of a woman
taking part in the action ... Either the poet was in fact a woman, or else, with
delicate understanding, he lets the sibyl herself speak thus in her female
character." I quote this to show that other commentators have taken
special note of st. 33, but I consider it indubitable that the poet was a man.
He could none the less share the feelings of a woman. But it is in fact the
artist's tenderness which weeps there in the person of Frigg (60inn could not
weep). This matches the general experience that the artist is at once the
tenderest and toughest of men.
88 [Professor Nordal has developed this argument further in his essay
'Volu-Steinn', Iounn. (I924), I6I-78 - Translators' note.]
soSee also my commentary on st. 26.