The Lay of Hárbarðr
© 2023 Edward Pettit, CC BY-NC 4.0 https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0308.06
Þórr travelled from the east-way and came to a sound. On the other side of the sound was the ferryman with the boat.
Þórr called out:
- ‘Who’s that boy of boys who stands on the other side of the sound?’
He replied:
- ‘Who’s that old man of old men who shouts across the strait?’
Þórr said:
- ‘Ferry me over the sound, I’ll feed you in the morning!
I’ve a basket on my back, the food couldn’t be better;
I ate at leisure, before I left home,
herrings and he-goats — I’m still stuffed with it!’
The ferryman said:
- ‘You boast of early deeds at breakfast,
you don’t fully understand what lies ahead:
your household’s downcast, I think your mother’s dead!’
Þórr said:
- ‘Now you’re saying that which will seem to everyone
most distressing, that my mother is dead.’
The ferryman said:
- ‘It’s not as if you own three good farms;
you stand barelegged and have a beggar’s garb —
you don’t even have your breeches!’
Þórr said:
- ‘Steer the little ferryboat over here! I’ll show you the landing-place —
and who owns the ship which you keep by the shore?’
The ferryman said:
- ‘Hildólfr he’s called, who asked me to keep it,
the counsel-shrewd warrior who lives in Ráðseyjarsund;
he told me not to ferry robbers or rustlers of horses,
only good men and those whom I know well;
state your name, if you want to travel across the sound!’
Þórr said:
- ‘I would tell my name, even if I were outlawed,
and all my lineage, too: I am Óðinn’s son,
Meili’s brother and Magni’s father,
strong-ruler of gods — it’s Þórr you’re speaking to here!
Now I want to ask this, what you are called.’
The ferryman said:
- ‘I’m called Hárbarðr, I seldom hide my name!’
Þórr said:
- ‘Why should you hide your name, unless you have disputes?’
Hárbarðr said:
- ‘But even if I have disputes, I’d defend my life
before such a one as you are, unless I were doomed!’
Þórr said:
- ‘A horrible shame it seems to me in this respect,
to wade over the bay to you and wet my burden(?)!
I’d pay you back for your insolent words,
you swaddling-clothed(?) brat, if I could get over the sound!’
Hárbarðr said:
- ‘Here I’ll stand and here I’ll await you;
you’ve not found a harder man since Hrungnir’s death!’
Þórr said:
- ‘Now you want to talk of the time when Hrungnir and I had dealings,
that stout-hearted giant whose head was made of stone;
even so, I made him fall and sink before me!
What were you doing meanwhile, Hárbarðr?’
Hárbarðr said:
- ‘I was with Fjǫlvarr all of five years,
on the island which is called Algrœn;
we fought there and felled warriors,
tested many things, tried out the girls!’
Þórr said:
- ‘How did it turn out with your women?’
Hárbarðr said:
- ‘We had sparky women, if they submitted to us;
we had knowing women, if they were nice to us;
out of sand they plaited ropes
and out of a deep dale
they dug the ground;
I alone became superior to them all by scheming,
I slept beside those seven sisters,
and I had all their lust and love-play!
What were you doing meanwhile, Þórr?’
Þórr said:
- ‘I slew Þjazi, the strong-minded giant,
I threw the eyes of Allvaldi’s son up
into the shining sky;
they are the greatest signs of my deeds,
those which all people since may see!
What were you doing meanwhile, Hárbarðr?’
Hárbarðr said:
- ‘Mighty girl-wiles I had for mirk-riders,
when I lured them away from men!
A hard giant I thought Hlébarðr to be;
he gave me a tribute(?)-twig,
and I wangled him out of his wits!’
Þórr said:
- ‘With ill-will you repaid good gifts, then.’
Hárbarðr said:
- ‘[One] oak has what’s scraped from another;
it’s everyone for himself in such things!
What were you doing meanwhile, Þórr?’
Þórr said:
- ‘I was in the east and I fought giants,
brides skilled in mischief who went to a mountain;
the kindred of giants would be large if all had lived —
there would be no men under Miðgarðr!
What were you doing meanwhile, Hárbarðr?’
Hárbarðr said:
- ‘I was in Valland and I followed battles;
I incited princes, and I never made peace;
Óðinn owns the earls, those who fall in battle,
but Þórr owns the kindred of thralls!’
Þórr said:
- ‘You’d divide people unequally among the Æsir,
if you possessed very much power!’
Hárbarðr said:
- ‘Þórr has sufficient strength, but no heart;
out of dread and cowardice you squeezed into a glove,
and you didn’t seem to be Þórr then;
because of your dread you then dared neither
sneeze nor fart so that Fjalarr heard!’
Þórr said:
- ‘Hárbarðr, you pervert, I’d strike you into Hel,
if I could stretch across the sound!’
Hárbarðr said:
- ‘Why should you stretch across the sound, when our disputes are all as none?
What were you doing then, Þórr?’
Þórr said:
- ‘I was in the east and I defended the river
when Svárangr’s sons assaulted me;
they pelted me with rocks, but took little pleasure in the victory,
they first had to beg me for peace!
What were you doing then, meanwhile, Hárbarðr?’
Hárbarðr said:
- ‘I was in the east and I spoke to some woman;
I played with the linen-white lady and had secret liaisons,
I gladdened the gold-bright woman, the girl gave me pleasure!’
Þórr said:
- ‘You had good dealings with the girl there, then!’
Hárbarðr said:
- ‘I’d have needed your help then, Þórr,
so that I might hold the linen-white maid!’
Þórr said:
- ‘I’d have granted it to you then, if I’d been able!’
Hárbarðr said:
- ‘I’d have trusted you then, unless you betrayed me!’
Þórr said:
- ‘I’m not such a heel-biter as an old hide shoe in spring!’
Hárbarðr said:
- ‘What were you doing meanwhile, Þórr?’
Þórr said:
- ‘I was fighting brides of berserks on Hlésey;
they’d done the worst things, deceived all humankind!’
Hárbarðr said:
- ‘You did a shameful thing then, Þórr, when you fought with women!’
Þórr said:
- ‘They were she-wolves, and scarcely women;
they smashed my ship, which I’d shored up,
threatened me with iron clubs, and chased Þjálfi!
What were you doing meanwhile, Hárbarðr?’
Hárbarðr said:
- ‘I was in the army which made ready here
to raise the battle-standard, to redden the spear!’
Þórr said:
- ‘Now you want to talk about this, when you went to offer us unpleasant terms!’
Hárbarðr said:
- ‘I shall compensate you for that, then, with an arm-ring,
just as the arbiters awarded, those who want to reconcile us!’
Þórr said:
- ‘Where did you learn these offensive words,
than which I’ve never heard more offensive!’
Hárbarðr said:
- ‘I learnt them from those old people who live in the forests of home!’
Þórr said:
- ‘But you’re giving cairns a good name when you call them “forests of home”!’
Hárbarðr said:
- ‘That’s how I think of such things!’
Þórr said:
- ‘Your glibness will serve you badly,
if I decide to wade across the bay;
louder than a wolf I think you’ll howl,
if you take a hit from my hammer!’
Hárbarðr said:
- ‘Sif has a lover at home, him you’ll want to meet;
you’ll use your might on him, that’s more urgent for you!’
Þórr said:
- ‘You’re shooting your mouth off, so that it should seem worst to me;
you gutless man, I think you’re lying!’
Hárbarðr said:
- ‘I think I speak true, you’re slow on your journey;
you’d have come a long way by now, Þórr, if you’d travelled with oars(?)!’
Þórr said:
- ‘Hárbarðr, you pervert, it’s rather you who’s delayed me now!’
Hárbarðr said:
- ‘I never thought a herdsman would
thwart the travels of Ása-Þórr!’
Þórr said:
- ‘I’ll tell you what to do now: row the boat over here!
Let’s stop bickering — meet Magni’s father!’
Hárbarðr said:
- ‘Clear off from the sound! Passage shall be refused you!’
Þórr said:
- ‘Show me the way now, since you won’t ferry me over the bay!’
Hárbarðr said:
- ‘It’s a little thing to refuse, [but] it’s a long way to go:
it’s one stretch to the stump, another to the stone,
then take the left-hand road until you reach Verland;
there Fjǫrgyn will find Þórr, her son,
and she will show him the kinsmen’s ways to Óðinn’s lands!’
Þórr said:
- ‘Will I get there today?’
Hárbarðr said:
- ‘You’ll get there with toil and trouble while the sun’s up,
as I think it will thaw!’
Þórr said:
- ‘Short will be our talk now, since you answer me only with scorn;
I’ll pay you back for refusing me passage, if we meet another time!’
Hárbarðr said:
- ‘Go now, to where fierce ones may have you whole!’
* Original text modified by the editor for clarification and ease of reading