The Gods of the North: an epic poem

by Adam Oehlenschläger

De Menneskeskikkelser dem paatog.

(Vil du kiaende di̱n Mand, pröv selv hans Vaerk.)

Af at sidde paa Stol i Hlidskialfs Slot

Var Odin traet, den opmaerksomme Drot;

Som Vandringsmand, i Skyggernes Löv

Han aander, og föler selv sig Stöv, etc.

In my translation of this Canto, I have adopted as a metre a stanza of eight lines, generally of ten syllables each, but admitting occasionally lines of eight or twelve syllables; the arrangement of the rhymes is varied. It is in fact exactly the same metre as that adopted by Schiller, in his translation of the second and fourth Books of the Æneid, and by Wieland, in his poem of Idris and Zenide.

[48] Jarl: a title of nobility in Norway, corresponding to that of count; the English title, earl, is derived therefrom.

[49] This eagle is the giant Thiasse, who took that form, in order to get Asa-Lok into his power, and compel him to carry off Iduna, the guardian of the apples of immortality, from Asagard.