The lay of Hymir
© 2023 Edward Pettit, CC BY-NC 4.0 https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0308.07
Þórr fished for the Miðgarðsormr
- Early, the gods of the slain caught game,
and were eager for a feast, before they were full;
they shook twigs and inspected sacrificial blood,
they found at Ægir’s an ample choice of cauldrons. - The cliff-dweller sat there, merry as a child,
much like the son of a mash-blender;
Yggr’s child looked into his eyes in defiance:
‘You shall often make drinking-feasts for the Æsir!’ - The word-trying man made work for the giant,
he brooded revenge at once against the god;
he called on Sif’s husband to bring him a cauldron:
‘the one in which I can brew ale for you all!’ - The glorious gods and the mighty powers
could not get it anywhere,
until Týr, out of true loyalty,
spoke a great piece of kindly advice to Hlórriði alone: - ‘To the east of the Élivágar lives
all-wise Hymir at heaven’s end;
my fierce father owns a kettle,
a capacious cauldron, one league deep.’ - ‘Do you know if we can get that liquid-boiler?’
‘If, my friend, we two use wiles to do so!’ - They travelled far away that day,
from Ásgarðr, until they came to Egill’s;
he tended the nobly-horned he-goats,
[and] they turned to the hall which Hymir owned. - The young man found his grandmother very loathsome to him —
she had nine hundred heads!
But another came forward, all-golden,
white-browed, to bring her son a beer-drink: - ‘Offspring of giants, I want to put you
two brave ones under the cauldrons:
my beloved is on many occasions
stingy with guests, inclined to ill temper!’ - And misshapen Hymir of hard-counsel
was late ready [to return] home from hunting;
he went into the hall — icicles clinked —
the old man’s cheek-forest was frozen when he came. - ‘Be hale, Hymir, [and] in good spirits,
now a son has come to your halls —
the one we two have waited for — from a long way off!
Hróðr’s enemy accompanies him,
the friend of humankind, the one called Véurr. - ‘See where they sit under the hall’s gable,
so they protect themselves — a pillar stands in front!’
The pillar burst apart before the giant’s glance,
and before that a beam broke in two. - Eight [cauldrons] fell down, but [only] one of them,
a hard-hammered cauldron, [fell] intact from the hanging-peg;
they came forward, and the ancient giant
tracked his enemy with his eyes. - His mind had misgivings when he saw
the griever of a giantess had come on to the floor;
three bulls were taken there,
the giant ordered them to be boiled at once. - They made each one shorter by a head
and then carried them to the cooking-pit;
Sif’s husband ate, before he went to sleep,
two of Hymir’s oxen, whole, on his own! - It seemed to the hoary friend of Hrungnir
that Hlórriði’s meal was, well, large enough:
‘Tomorrow evening, we three will have to live
on food caught by fishing!’ - Véurr said he was willing to row on the surging sea,
if the bold giant would give him bait;
‘Turn to the herd, if you trust your courage,
breaker of rock-Danir, to seek bait! - ‘This I expect, that bait from an ox
will be easy for you to obtain!’
The boy turned fast to the forest,
before which there stood an all-black ox. - The giant’s counsel-killer broke from above the bull
the high-meadow of two horns;
‘Your works seem much worse
to the ruler of ships than when you sit quiet!’ - The lord of goats asked the offspring of apes
to row the roller-stallion further out;
but the giant declared he had
little desire to row any longer. - Famous, moody Hymir at once hauled up,
by himself, two whales on a hook;
and back in the stern the one related to Óðinn,
Véurr, prepared a line for himself with wiles. - The one who saves men, the snake’s lone slayer,
baited the hook with the ox’s head;
it gaped at the hook, the one whom gods hate,
the girdle of all lands, from below. - Deed-brave Þórr daringly dragged
the venom-gleaming snake up to the gunwale;
with his hammer he struck from above the extremely hideous
high-mountain of hair of the wolf’s birth-brother. - Reindeer-monsters roared, and stony grounds resounded,
all the ancient earth shuddered;
then that fish sank into the sea. - The giant [was] gloomy when they rowed back,
such that Hymir at first said nothing;
he turned the rudder to another tack: - ‘You would be sharing half the work with me
if you bring the whales back to the farm
or make fast our floating-buck.’ - Hlórriði went [and] grasped the prow,
hoisted up the sea-steed with the bilge-water;
alone, with oars and with bilge-bailer,
he carried the giant’s surf-swine to the farm
and through a valley of wooded ridges. - And still the giant, accustomed to stubbornness,
disputed with Þórr about strength;
he said no man was strong, even if he could row mightily,
unless he could break a goblet. - And Hlórriði, when it came to his hands,
soon made steep stone break with the glass;
sitting, he struck it through pillars,
but they brought it [back] intact to Hymir. - Until the fair loved one imparted
one great piece of loving advice which she knew:
‘Strike it against Hymir’s skull — it’s harder,
the choice-weary giant’s, than any goblet!’ - The hard lord of he-goats rose at the knee,
assumed his full Áss-strength;
intact was the top of the old man’s helmet-stump,
but the round wine-vessel was riven. - ‘Many treasures, I know, have departed from me,
when I see the goblet dashed from my knees.’
The old man spoke words: ‘I can’t say
ever again, “You, ale, are brewed!” - ‘It’s your opportunity [to see] if you can take
the ale-ship out of our farmstead’;
Týr tried twice to shift it,
[but] each time the cauldron stood still before him. - Móði’s father grasped it by the rim,
and through the floor in the hall stepped down;
Sif’s husband heaved the cauldron up on to his head,
and at his heels the rings clattered. - They went a long way before
Óðinn’s son looked back one time;
he saw advancing from stone-heaps, with Hymir, from the east,
a warrior-host of many-headed ones. - He heaved the [high-]standing cauldron from his shoulders,
he swung murder-eager Mjǫllnir forward,
and he slew all the lava-whales. - They had not gone far before
Hlórriði’s goat lay half-dead before them;
the trace’s team-mate was lamed by a curse,
and the crafty Loki was the cause of that. - But you have heard — everyone who knows
tales of the gods can tell it more fully —
what recompense he received from the lava-dweller,
when he paid for it with both his children. - The one of great strength came to the gods’ assembly,
and he had the cauldron, the one which Hymir owned;
and holy ones shall drink ale well
at Ægir’s [home] each venom-rope-cutter.
* Original text modified by the editor for clarification and ease of reading