The Poetic Edda Index

Harbarthsljoth
40. "In the host I was | that hither fared,
The banners to raise, | and the spear to redden."
Thor spake:
41. "Wilt thou now say | that hatred thou soughtest to bring us?"
Harbarth spake:
42. "A ring for thy hand | shall make all right for thee,
As the judge decides | who sets us two at peace."
[39. Thjalfi: Thor's servant; cf. note on stanza 14.
40. To what expedition this refers is unknown, but apparently Othin speaks of himself as allied to the foes of the gods.
41. Hatred: so Regius; the other manuscript has, apparently, "sickness."
42. Just what Othin means, or why his words should so have enraged Thor, is not evident, though he may imply that Thor
is open to bribery. Perhaps a passage has dropped out before stanza 43.]
{p. 134}
Thor spake:
43. "Where foundest thou | so foul and scornful a speech?
More foul a speech | I never before have heard."
Harbarth spake:
44. "I learned it from men, | the men so old,
Who dwell in the hills of home."
Thor spake:
45. "A name full good | to heaps of stones thou givest
When thou callest them hills of home."
Harbarth spake:
46. "Of such things speak I so."
Thor spake:
47. "Ill for thee comes | thy keenness of tongue,
If the water I choose to wade;
Louder, I ween, | than a wolf thou cryest,
If a blow of my hammer thou hast."
Harbarth spake:
48. "Sif has a lover at home, | and him shouldst thou meet;
More fitting it were | on him to put forth thy strength."
[44. Othin refers to the dead, from whom he seeks information through his magic power.
48. Sit: Thor's wife, the lover being presumably Loki; cf. Lokasenna, 54.]
{p. 135}
Thor spake:
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