Step 1 of 9 · Love, Longing and Folly
In the reeds, and Billing’s daughter
Why this step
The speaker remembers sitting in the reeds, looking for his love. In stanzas 94 and 95 she was body and soul to him, yet he never won her as a wife, and then he found Billing’s daughter asleep, fairer than sunlight. Lordship, he says, seemed nothing beside her. The entry reads it as longing so strong that nothing else seems worth having.
The text, stanzas 94–95
94.
This once I felt when I sat without
in the reeds, and looked for my love;
body and soul of me was that sweet maiden
yet never I won her as wife.
95.
Billing's daughter I found on her bed,
fairer than sunlight sleeping,
and the sweets of lordship seemed to me nought,
save I lived with that lovely form.
- 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 94–95 (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.
From the Lorebook
The speaker waits in the reeds for his love, and says she was all he wanted. He finds Billing’s daughter asleep, fairer than sunlight, and lordship seems worth nothing beside her.