Step 7 of 9 · Protection and Boundaries
Blunting weapons and loosing chains
Why this step
The third and fourth of the speaker’s songs (stanzas 147 and 148) are protective spells: one blunts the swords of enemies so that weapons and staves cannot wound, and one springs the fetters from his hands and feet. The entry reads them as pictures of protection from violence and release from restraint, In the poem they are powers the speaker claims for himself, not advice to the listener.
The text, stanzas 147–148
147.
A third I know: if sore need should come
of a spell to stay my foes;
when I sing that song, which shall blunt their swords,
nor their weapons nor staves can wound.
148.
A fourth I know: if men make fast
in chains the joints of my limbs,
when I sing that song which shall set me free,
spring the fetters from hands and feet.
- 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 147–148 (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 third song blunts the swords of enemies; the fourth frees the speaker if he is chained.