Page:The Elder Edda and the Younger Edda - tr. Thorpe - 1907.djvu/142

 38. I alone knew, how on all sides my pains increased. The maids of Hel each eve with horror bade me to their home.

39. The sun I saw, true star of day, sink in its roaring home; but Hel's grated doors on the other side I heard heavily creaking.

40. The sun I saw with blood-red beams beset: (fast was I then from this world declining) mightier she appeared, in many ways, than she was before.

41. The sun I saw, and it seemed to me as if I saw a glorious god: I bowed before her, for the last time, in the world of men.

42. The sun I saw: she beamed forth so that I seemed nothing to know; but Gioll's streams roared from the other side mingled much with blood.

43. The sun I saw, with quivering eyes, appalled and shrinking; for my heart in great measure was dissolved in languor.

44. The sun I saw seldom sadder; I had then almost from the world declined: my tongue was as wood become, and all was cold without me.

45. The sun I saw never after, since that gloomy day; for the mountain-waters closed over me, and I went called from torments.

46. The star of hope, when I was born, fled from my breast away; high it flew, settled nowhere, so that it might find rest.

47. Longer than all was that one night, when stiff on my straw I lay; then becomes manifest the divine word: "Man is the same as earth." 116