Hávamál
Gunnlod and the Mead of Song
Gunnlod gives the speaker a draught of the mead, and he admits he repaid her poorly. He says he could not have come back without her, and that the Mead of Song is now among men.
Reference: stanzas 104–106 (Bray’s numbering) (The Elder or Poetic Edda, Commonly Known as Sæmund’s Edda, part I: The Mythological Poems)
The text, stanzas 104–106
104.
'Twas Gunnlod who gave me on a golden throne
a draught of the glorious mead,
but with poor reward did I pay her back
for her true and troubled heart.
105.
In a wily disguise I worked my will;
little is lacking to the wise,
for the Soul-stirrer now, sweet Mead of Song,
is brought to men's earthly abode.
106.
I misdoubt me if ever again I had come
from the realms of the Jötun race,
had I not served me of Gunnlod, sweet woman,
her whom I held in mine arms.
- Olive Bray (editor and translator), The Elder or Poetic Edda, Commonly Known as Sæmund’s Edda, part I: The Mythological Poems (opens in a new tab) (1908), stanzas 104–106 (Bray’s numbering) Rights: Public domain. Published in 1908, so in the public domain in the United States. Text as edited online by D. L. Ashliman, Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts, University of Pittsburgh.
In plain English
Gunnlod, the speaker says, gave him on a golden throne a draught of the glorious mead, and he paid her back poorly for her true and troubled heart.
In a wily disguise he worked his will. Little is lacking to the wise, because the Soul-stirrer, the sweet Mead of Song, has now been brought to men’s earthly dwelling.
He doubts he would ever have come back from the realms of the Jötun race if he had not made use of Gunnlod, the sweet woman he held in his arms.
- Olive Bray (editor and translator), The Elder or Poetic Edda, Commonly Known as Sæmund’s Edda, part I: The Mythological Poems (opens in a new tab) (1908), stanzas 104–106 (Bray’s numbering) Rights: Public domain. Published in 1908, so in the public domain in the United States. Text as edited online by D. L. Ashliman, Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts, University of Pittsburgh.
The mead elsewhere in the poem
Gunnlod is named in stanza 13 (see “Ale and the wits”), where the speaker says he was fettered in her garths. The “Soul-stirrer” of stanza 105 returns in stanza 139, where the speaker says he was showered with the Soulstirrer’s drops (see “Nine songs and the Mead”).
- Olive Bray (editor and translator), The Elder or Poetic Edda, Commonly Known as Sæmund’s Edda, part I: The Mythological Poems (opens in a new tab) (1908), stanzas 104–106 (Bray’s numbering) Rights: Public domain. Published in 1908, so in the public domain in the United States. Text as edited online by D. L. Ashliman, Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts, University of Pittsburgh.
In the manuscripts and scholarship
This is the centre of the mead story, which is told in the Hávamál and, separately, by Snorri in Skáldskaparmál, where Suttungr is the son of Gilling, keeps the mead at Hnitbjörg, and Odin gets in through a tunnel bored with the drill Rati, then escapes as an eagle. Bellows says the Hávamál’s source for the tale is unknown.
Bellows explains that Odin goes in under the name Bolverk, that Rati is the gimlet, and that the mead is called Óðrerir. He suspects one or two lines of one stanza in this stretch were added later. The poem itself survives in the Codex Regius, c. 1270.
- Henry Adams Bellows (translator), The Poetic Edda (1936)
- Wikipedia, Hávamál (opens in a new tab)
- Wikipedia, Mead of poetry (opens in a new tab)
Modern interpretation
The poem lets the speaker admit that he repaid Gunnlod badly. Modern readers often notice that admission, and the oath-breaking in stanza 108. That is a modern reading.
Questions to sit with
- Who helped you get where you are and was repaid poorly? What would a fair repayment look like now?