Wednesday 28 August 2013

Havamal Snippets 85: A cracking bow, a burning flame..

This stanza is a series of synonyms.  It's like at least one other religious text (the Nag Hammadi) and it's pretty much like a dictionary: it uses a number of different examples in order to convey a single phenomenon.  Like a person might say "a lava flow; a cup of tea; scalding steam; a burning fire", which are all similar because they describe something hot.

The phenomenon that the stanza is trying to convey might be: Powerful, Wodh like (as in 'blazing' with energy), imminence.  As in the period immediately after moving from 'A' to 'Not-A' (like getting off of a train onto a station platform after a long journey).


85
Brestanda boga
brennanda loga
gínanda úlfi
galandi kráku
rýtanda svíni
rótlausum viði
vaxanda vági
vellanda katli 

A cracking bow,
a burning flame,
a gaping wolf,
a screaming crow,
a grunting pig,
a rootless tree,
a rising sea,
a boiling kettle,

[End.]

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