Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

Tveggja bága
Njörva nipt
á nesi stendur.
Skal eg þó glaður
með góðan vilja
og óhryggur
Heljar bíða.
The kinswoman of Njorvi (the
binder)
of Odin's (Tveggi's) foes
stands on the ness.
But I shall gladly
with good will
and without remorse
wait for Hel.
It goes without saying that the skald means a dis of death, Urd or one of her
messengers, with the words, "the kinswoman of Njorvi (the binder) of Odin's foes,"
whom he with the eye of presentiment sees standing on the family grave-mound on
Digraness. She is not to stop there, but she is to continue her way to his hall, to bring him
to the gravemound. He awaits her coming with gladness, and as the last line shows, she
whose arrival he awaits is Hel, the goddess of death or fate. It has already been
demonstrated that Hel in the heathen records is always identical with Urd. 1
Njorvi is here used both as a proper and a common noun. "The kinswoman of the
Njorvi of Odin's foes" means "the kinswoman of the binder of Odin's foes." Odin's foe
Fenrir was bound with an excellent chain smithied in the lower world (dwarfs in
Svartálfaheimr -- Gylfaginning 34), and as shall be shown later, there are more than one
of Odin's foes who are bound with Narvi's chains (see No. 87). 2
(c) Höfuðlausn 10. Egil Skallagrimson celebrates in song a victory won by Erik
Blood-axe, and says of the battle-field that there trað nipt Nara náttverð ara ("Nari's
kinswoman trampled upon the supper of the eagles," that is to say, upon the dead bodies
of the fallen). 3 The psychopomps of disease, of age, and of misfortunes have nothing to
do on a battle-field. Thither come valkyries to fetch the elect. Nipt Nara must therefore
be a valkyrie, whose horse tramples upon the heaps of dead bodies; and as Egil names
only one shield-maid of that kind, he doubtless has had the most representative, the most
important one in mind. That one is Skuld, Urd's sister, and thus a nipt Nara like Urd
herself.
1 Rydberg's translation here is very unlikely. Most editors assume njörva-nipt, to mean "close sister," i.e.
alsystir whole sister as opposed to hálfsystir (half-sister), and interpret the line "the close sister of Odin's
enemy stands on the ness." The close sister of Odin's enemy, Fenrir, is of course the terrible Loki-daughter.
This finds support in verse 24 where Odin is called the "enemy of the wolf", bági ulfs.
Gudbrand Vigfusson in Corpus Poeticum Boreale, suggests: Nús torrek kveðit tveggja bura Nörva nipt es
nær stendr, meaning "Now the loss of my two sons is sung through. Nörvi's daughter [Night] is at hand."
Because nipt refers to a female relative, there is no obstacle to Nörva nipt referring to Urd rather than to
Night (cp. nera nipt used of a Norn in HH I.)
2 The other foe bound with Narvi's chains is Völund-Thjazi, however "Odin's foe" is an accepted
paraphrase of the Fenris Wolf, making this reading improbable.
3 From Egil's Saga, ch. 61. Nipt nerja is generally translated as the Loki-daughter, the sister of Loki's son
Narvi. Upon examination of his argument, this verse is among the strongest pieces of evidence in support
of Rydberg's theory here.