The Poetic Edda · Poem 6
The Poem of Harbarth
1Thor was on his way back from a journey in the East, and came to a sound; on the other side of the sound was a ferryman with a boat. Thor called out: “Who is the fellow yonder, on the farther shore of the sound?”
2The ferryman spake: “What kind of a peasant is yon, that calls o’er the bay?”
3Thor spake: “Ferry me over the sound; I will feed thee therefor in the morning; A basket I have on my back, and food therein, none better; At leisure I ate, ere the house I left, Of herrings and porridge, so plenty I had.”
4The ferryman spake: “Of thy morning feats art thou proud, but the future thou knowest not wholly; Doleful thine home-coming is: thy mother, methinks, is dead.”
5Thor spake: “Now hast thou said what to each must seem The mightiest grief, that my mother is dead.”
6The ferryman spake: “Three good dwellings, methinks, thou hast not; Barefoot thou standest, and wearest a beggar’s dress; Not even hose dost thou have.”
7Thor spake: “Steer thou hither the boat; the landing here shall I show thee; But whose the craft that thou keepest on the shore?”
8The ferryman spake: “Hildolf is he who bade me have it, A hero wise; his home is at Rathsey’s sound. He bade me no robbers to steer, nor stealers of steeds, But worthy men, and those whom well do I know. Say now thy name, if over the sound thou wilt fare.”
9Thor spake: “My name indeed shall I tell, though in danger I am, And all my race; I am Othin’s son, Meili’s brother, and Magni’s father, The strong one of the gods; with Thor now speech canst thou get. And now would I know what name thou hast.”
10The ferryman spake: “Harbarth am I, and seldom I hide my name.”
11Thor spake: “Why shouldst thou hide thy name, if quarrel thou hast not?”
12Harbarth spake: “And though I had a quarrel, from such as thou art Yet none the less my life would I guard, Unless I be doomed to die.”
13Thor spake: “Great trouble, methinks, would it be to come to thee, To wade the waters across, and wet my middle; Weakling, well shall I pay thy mocking words, If across the sound I come.”
14Harbarth spake: “Here shall I stand and await thee here; Thou hast found since Hrungnir died no fiercer man.”
15Thor spake: “Fain art thou to tell how with Hrungnir I fought, The haughty giant, whose head of stone was made; And yet I felled him, and stretched him before me. What, Harbarth, didst thou the while?”
16Harbarth spake: “Five full winters with Fjolvar was I, And dwelt in the isle that is Algrön called; There could we fight, and fell the slain, Much could we seek, and maids could master.”
17Thor spake: “How won ye success with your women?”
18Harbarth spake: “Lively women we had, if they wise for us were; Wise were the women we had, if they kind for us were; For ropes of sand they would seek to wind, And the bottom to dig from the deepest dale. Wiser than all in counsel I was, And there I slept by the sisters seven, And joy full great did I get from each. What, Thor, didst thou the while?”
19Thor spake: “Thjazi I felled, the giant fierce, And I hurled the eyes of Alvaldi’s son To the heavens hot above; Of my deeds the mightiest marks are these, That all men since can see. What, Harbarth, didst thou the while?”
20Harbarth spake: “Much love-craft I wrought with them who ride by night, When I stole them by stealth from their husbands; A giant hard was Hlebarth, methinks: His wand he gave me as gift, And I stole his wits away.”
21Thor spake: “Thou didst repay good gifts with evil mind.”
22Harbarth spake: “The oak must have what it shaves from another; In such things each for himself. What, Thor, didst thou the while?”
23Thor spake: “Eastward I fared, of the giants I felled Their ill-working women who went to the mountain; And large were the giants’ throng if all were alive; No men would there be in Mithgarth more. What, Harbarth, didst thou the while?”
24Harbarth spake: “In Valland I was, and wars I raised, Princes I angered, and peace brought never; The noble who fall in the fight hath Othin, And Thor hath the race of the thralls.”
25Thor spake: “Unequal gifts of men wouldst thou give to the gods, If might too much thou shouldst have.”
26Harbarth spake: “Thor has might enough, but never a heart; For cowardly fear in a glove wast thou fain to crawl, And there forgot thou wast Thor; Afraid there thou wast, thy fear was such, To fart or sneeze lest Fjalar should hear.”
27Thor spake: “Thou womanish Harbarth, to hell would I smite thee straight, Could mine arm reach over the sound.”
28Harbarth spake: “Wherefore reach over the sound, since strife we have none? What, Thor, didst thou do then?”
29Thor spake: “Eastward I was, and the river I guarded well, Where the sons of Svarang sought me there; Stones did they hurl; small joy did they have of winning; Before me there to ask for peace did they fare. What, Harbarth, didst thou the while?”
30Harbarth spake: “Eastward I was, and spake with a certain one, I played with the linen-white maid, and met her by stealth; I gladdened the gold-decked one, and she granted me joy.”
31Thor spake: “Full fair was thy woman-finding.”
32Harbarth spake: “Thy help did I need then, Thor, to hold the white maid fast.”
33Thor spake: “Gladly, had I been there, my help to thee had been given.”
34Harbarth spake: “I might have trusted thee then, didst thou not betray thy troth.”
35Thor spake: “No heel-biter am I, in truth, like an old leather shoe in spring.”
36Harbarth spake: “What, Thor, didst thou the while?”
37Thor spake: “In Hlesey the brides of the Berserkers slew I; Most evil they were, and all they betrayed.”
38Harbarth spake: “Shame didst thou win, that women thou slewest, Thor.”
39Thor spake: “She-wolves they were like, and women but little; My ship, which well I had trimmed, did they shake; With clubs of iron they threatened, and Thjalfi they drove off. What, Harbarth, didst thou the while?”
40Harbarth spake: “In the host I was that hither fared, The banners to raise, and the spear to redden.”
41Thor spake: “Wilt thou now say that hatred thou soughtest to bring us?”
42Harbarth spake: “A ring for thy hand shall make all right for thee, As the judge decides who sets us two at peace.”
43Thor spake: “Where foundest thou so foul and scornful a speech? More foul a speech I never before have heard.”
44Harbarth spake: “I learned it from men, the men so old, Who dwell in the hills of home.”
45Thor spake: “A name full good to heaps of stones thou givest When thou callest them hills of home.”
46Harbarth spake: “Of such things speak I so.”
47Thor spake: “Ill for thee comes thy keenness of tongue, If the water I choose to wade; Louder, I ween, than a wolf thou cryest, If a blow of my hammer thou hast.”
48Harbarth spake: “Sif has a lover at home, and him shouldst thou meet; More fitting it were on him to put forth thy strength.”
49Thor spake: “Thy tongue still makes thee say what seems most ill to me, Thou witless man! Thou liest, I ween.”
50Harbarth spake: “Truth do I speak, but slow on thy way thou art; Far hadst thou gone if now in the boat thou hadst fared.”
51Thor spake: “Thou womanish Harbarth! here hast thou held me too long.”
52Harbarth spake: “I thought not ever that Asathor would be hindered By a ferryman thus from faring.”
53Thor spake: “One counsel I bring thee now: row hither thy boat; No more of scoffing; set Magni’s father across.”
54Harbarth spake: “From the sound go hence; the passage thou hast not.”
55Thor spake: “The way now show me, since thou takest me not o’er the water.”
56Harbarth spake: “To refuse it is little, to fare it is long; A while to the stock, and a while to the stone; Then the road to thy left, till Verland thou reachest; And there shall Fjorgyn her son Thor find, And the road of her children she shows him to Othin’s realm.”
57Thor spake: “May I come so far in a day?”
58Harbarth spake: “With toil and trouble perchance, While the sun still shines, or so I think.”
59Thor spake: “Short now shall be our speech, for thou speakest in mockery only; The passage thou gavest me not I shall pay thee if ever we meet.”
60Harbarth spake: “Get hence where every evil thing shall have thee!”