The Sagas of Ragnar Lodbrok

Heimdall he was, the dullest11 of all the Æsir, and yet bad to you.”

“He was Balder among the Æsir, whom all the gods mourned, and not like you.”

was Balder among the Æsir, whom all the gods mourned, and not like you.

Be silent, you sluggard!

The powerful one dies proudly—
the prince chose this fall.

The piglets would protest loudly
if the boar’s plight they knew.
Death has been dealt to me,
snakes dig in my flesh-house
and savagely stab me,
serpents suck my life out.
beside the beasts I’ll die now,
soon I will be a corpse.

I have fought ‘gainst foes in
fifty-one battles in all,
which seemed a splendid feat,
I did scathe to many men;
I never imagined a snake
for the ending of my life;
many things may happen
which men themselves expect least.

“The piglets would grunt now, if they knew what the old pig suffers.”

Stitched and seamed nowhere,
this long shirt I give you;
out of hoar-grey hair-strands,
with a high heart, I wove it.
No wound will be bloody,
nor will weapons bite you
if you have this hallowed tunic,
made holy by the gods.

What does the ring-breaker hear
come from the rocks howling,
that the flinger of hand-fire
must forsake his fleet sea-serpents?
Yet I, who freely scatter
all the forearm’s layings,
shall bear with this plan bravely,
brooch-Bil, if the gods will.