SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

Two Renderings of "Waking of Angantyr" 85
ANG. 0 daughter, why, with charm unblest,
Disturb thy sire Angantyr's rest?
In Death's cold mansion strife should cease,
And slaughter'd warriors sleep in peace.
Ruthless Hervor, dire thy deed,
That noble chiefs again should bleed;
Tyrfingyr here you seek in vain,
The victor's mede our arms remain.
These two stanzas will serve to illustrate the character
of Sterling's version.
This was not his first venture into the Old Norse field,
for already in 1782 his Poems included at pp. 27-46
(pp. 139-157 in the 1789 edition) "Odes from the Icelandic;
with a dissertation and notes", in which "the sublime
Gray" had been his guide. They were dedicated to the
Hon. John Cunninghame," presumably the eccentric, if
not crazy, character who succeeded as 15th and last Earl
of Glencairn in 1791 and died in 1796. These are "The
Scalder; An Ode" and "The Twilight of the Gods. An
Ode". Sterling's introduction describes "The Scalder" in
the following terms: "The three first stanzas ... contain
a description of the Valhalla, or Hall of Odin, as it is
pourtrayed in the Edda, Bartholinus de causis contemnendre
mortis, and other northern writers. In the fourth
and fifth stanzas of the same Ode, the Flath Innis, or
Noble Isle, is described; it was the paradise of the Celts,
and differed in some particulars from the Valhalla."
Indeed the skullcracking joys of Valhalla were in sharp
contrast to the milder pleasures of the Noble Isle.
On "The Twilight of the Gods" Sterling comments:
"The second Ode is still more obscure than the first, as
in some measure it comprehends almost the whole
Scandinavian mythology, which is a species of literature
at present but little known." It seems unnecessary to
2 He was reputed to be the author of a drama "in twenty-five acts and a few
odd scenes, ... commencing 'Act rst, Scene 1. Enter Adam and Eve stark
naked, booted and spurred, puffing and blowing, in a hurry to be married"
(Collectanea Genealogica, p. 103, ed. James Maidment, Edinburgh r883).