The letter u is in this manuscript used for both u and y (compare Bugge, Sæmund Edd., Preface x., xi.), and hence kuni may be read both kuni and kyni. The latter reading makes logical sense. Kyni is dative of kyn, a neuter noun, meaning something sorcerous, supernatural, a monster. Kynjamein and kynjasött mean diseases brought on by sorcery. Seid in both the above lines is past tense of the verb sida, and not in either one of them the noun seidr.

There was a sacred sorcery and an unholy one, according to the purpose for which it was practised, and according to the attending ceremonies. The object of the holy sorcery was to bring about something good either for the sorcerer or for others, or to find out the will of the gods and future things. The sorcery practised by Heidr is the unholy one, hated by the gods, and again and again forbidden in the laws, and this kind of sorcery is designated in Völuspa by the term sida kyni. Of a thing practised with improper means it is said that it is not kynja-lauss, kyn-free.

The reading in Cod. Hauk., seid hon hvars hon kunni, seid hon hugleikin, evidently has some "emendator" to thank for its existence who did not understand the passage and wished to substitute something easily understood for the obscure lines he thought he had found.

[15] The interpretation of the passage, which has hitherto prevailed, begins with a text emendation. Fánn is changed to Finn. Finn is the name of a dwarf. Finns hrosti is "the dwarf's drink," and "the dwarf's drink" is, on the authority of the Younger Edda, synonymous with poetry. The possessor of Finns hrosti is Odin, the lord of poetry. With text emendations of this sort (they are numerous, are based on false notions in regard to the adaptability of the Icelandic Christian poetics to the heathen poetry and usually quote Gylfaginning as authority) we can produce anything we like from the statements of the ancient records. Odin's character as the Lord of poetry has not the faintest idea in common with the contents of the strophe. His character as judge at the court near Urd's fountain, and as the one who, as the judge of the dead, has authority over the liquor in the subterranean horn, is on the other hand closely connected with the contents of the strophe, and is alone able to make it consistent and intelligible. Further on in the poem, Egil speaks of Odin as the lord of poetry. Odin, he says, has not only been severe against him (in the capacity of hilmir Fáns hrosta), but he has also been kind in bestowing the gift of poetry, and therewith consolation in sorrow (bölva bætr). The paraphrase here used by Egil for Odin's name is Mims vinr (Mimer's friend). From Mimer Odin received the drink of inspiration, and thus the paraphrase is in harmony with the sense. As hilmir Fáns hrosta Odin has wounded Egil's heart; as Mims vinr (Mimer's friend) he has given him balsam for the wounds inflicted. This two-sided conception of Odin's relation to the poet permeates the whole poem.

[16] Likewise the warlike skald Kormak is certain that he would have come to Valhal in case he had been drowned under circumstances described in his saga, a work which is, however, very unreliable.

[17] Possibly the same as that of which a few strophes are preserved in Baldrs draumar, an old poetic fragment whose gaps have been filled in a very unsatisfactory manner in recent times with strophes which now are current as Vegtamskvida. That Odin, when he is about to proceed to the abode which in the subterranean realms of bliss is to receive Balder, chooses the route through Nifelhel is explained not by Vegtamskvida, where this fact is stated, but by the older poem mentioned by Saxo, which makes him seek the dweller in Nifelhel, the rimthurs Hrossthiófr, son of Hrimnir.

INDEX
OF
PERSONS AND PLACES.
TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY.

Transcriber's Note: This index has been copied in from Volume III for the convenience of the reader (although it doesn't use the accented letters found in the rest of the text). Only the page numbers in this volume are linked.