Step 11 of 12 · Spells, Songs and Runes
Knowing the Powers
Why this step
Stanzas 158 and 159 turn from deeds to knowledge. With the fourteenth song the speaker can number the Powers to people, knowing the nature of gods and elves, which none can know untaught. The fifteenth is one the dwarf Folk-stirrer sang at the gates of Dawn: strength to the gods, skill to the elves and wisdom to Odin. The entry notes that here the speaker names Odin in the third person.
The text, stanzas 158–159
158.
A fourteenth I know: if I needs must number
the Powers to the people of men,
I know all the nature of gods and of elves
which none can know untaught.
159.
A fifteenth I know, which Folk-stirrer sang,
the dwarf, at the gates of Dawn;
he sang strength to the gods, and skill to the elves,
and wisdom to Odin who utters.
- 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 158–159 (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 fourteenth song lets the speaker name all the gods and elves. The fifteenth is one that a dwarf sang at the gates of Dawn for gods, elves and Odin.