SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

Voluspd I3I
The lEsir's counsel of salvation is to give Heimdall's
hearing and Gesinn's sight in pawn to Mimir in return for
a drink from the well of wisdom. In this the poet's
insight is seen. For hitherto the gods have possessed the
child's acute senses and undeveloped thought. Now they
sell their sensitivity for knowledge. Much pondering
usually blunts observation.
It is doubtful how the poet understood this pawning.
Is it because Gesinn is one-eyed that the gods overlook the
mistletoe? Or is it because Heimdall's hearing is impaired
that he does not blow his horn until everything is in
uproar? Only one thing is clear - this is a new step in
the corruption of the gods. The wisdom which Gesinn
receives from Mimir and the foster-child of the giants, the
sibyl who tells the story, proves only a hindrance to him.
An alliance with the giants must always be a retrogressive
step. Wisdom gives Gesinn fear. Now he has become the
Yggjungr, "fearful", of the lEsir. But fear does not turn
the fates back. It can see but not overcome. This
pessimistic view of the perceptive man is also apparent in
Hdvamdl:
Snotrs manns hjarta
veror sjaldan glatt ...
orlog' sin
viti engi Iyrir,
peim er sorgalausastr sefi. 91
These are virtually the words of Ecclesiastes: "For in
much wisdom is much grief; and he that increaseth
knowledge increaseth sorrow."92
G5inn foresees Ragnarok, He begins to gather his
forces and sends the Valkyries out to choose men. But at
the same time he increases the corruption of the world,
sets kings against one another, implants hatred among
kinsmen and is at length considered to cause "all evil".
91 H avamal st. 55-6.
•• EccI. i, 18.