4.5 Freyr's second Group of eight
24
Óðinn launched
his spear into the crowd,
of sacred individuals
the best/winners of the world;
the wooden wall was broken,
the yard of the spirits,
the beautiful predicted the outcome of the battle,
they stood ready on the battlefield.
This verse is linked to Fehu and Auðhumbla. On New Year's Eve the sorcerers were symbolically hanged in the ash trees, wounded by spearheads. Heimdallr blew the horn so that the mound was opened up (i. e. the gate in the picket fence surrounding the burial mound was opened) and was ready to accept the “gods”. The beautiful sorceresses knew what was about to happen and prepared for the inevitable Ragnarök.
This is the 24th verse, but it is actually an elaboration of the 1st verse. A verse might contain only some information, so it was necessary to create additional verses to include all the information needed in the song, and since the verses were related to the runes, which came in a certain order, it was necessary to begin anew when the rune-row was completed once. After Oþala the Fehu rune came again, and so one could continue indefinitely.
25
Then all the powers went
to the seats of the end (i. e. the grave)
the sacred gods,
and agreed;
who had in the air
mixed dishonesty
or to one of giant stock
given Óðinn's maiden.
This verse is connected to Uruz and Þursaz, Ymir and Bölþorn. Baldr had been killed by the mistletoe, at the Autumn Equinox, and his wife Nanna, alias Íðunn, had been abducted to the underworld by the giant Þjazi. They now had to be recovered, and therefore the gods travelled into the burial mound.
26
Thunder accuses,
swelling of strength and courage,
he seldom sits still,
when he experiences treachery like this;
when oaths are broken,
words and promises,
all strong amongst men
are broken.
This verse is connected to Þursaz and Bölþorn. The mistletoe, the bad branch, originally a good force, had failed the oak tree and killed Baldr and his wife. The thunderclouds bore witness to what the gods/spirits thought about this.
27
She knows that the worldtree's
sound (Gjallarhorn) is pawned
it is common
under the sacred tree;
she sees a river poured,
a waterfall leading to coarse mud
from the pawn of the father of the chosen.
Do you still know enough or what?
This verse is connected to Ansuz and Óðinn. The bronze lures were "pawned" under the sacred tree, meaning they were dug down to the next New Year's Day, when they again where to be used to open up the road to Hel. The pawn of the father of the chosen was either Baldr himself (Óðinn's eye) or the valuables the dead were buried with, when they were placed in the burial mounds. The gods entered the mound to get hold of them “again” (believing they were the reborn dead themselves). The valuables were not gone for all time, because it could be recovered, so it was only a “pawn”. "Do you still know enough or what?" suggests that the goddess of the mound, teaching the visiting god these verses, wondered if he knew enough or needed to hear more. Maybe it was about time the listener understood what the song was about. "Do you still not know what I'm talking about?" She wants him to give her the key words, to prove his knowledge.
28
She sat alone outside,
when the old came,
the frightening young god,
and looked her in the eyes.
What do you ask me,
why tempt you me?
Everything I know, Óðinn,
about how you lost your eye,
in the well of reminiscence;
the one who reminiscent drinks mead
every morning
from the pawn of the father of the fallen/chosen.
Do you still know enough or what?
This verse is linked to Ansuz and Raiþo, Óðinn and Þórr. The gods, the young men dressed up like Óðinn, were in fact “the old god” and young at the same time. So the old god who came to visit Hel was in reality a young god, and he was scary because he looked like he really belonged in the grave; wearing a mask, being naked or wearing a white dress and with bleeding wounds, the body painted with ash and often with a gallows' rope hanging around his neck. The god tempted Hel, slept with her to get a son (and he might originally have whipped her with a green branch to make her fertile), and was so himself born as the son when he left the burial mound; from Hel's womb. Óðinn's lost eye was the Sun/Baldr, which/who he temporarily lost at the Autumn Equinox, when Baldr was killed and sent to the underworld. Hel, who had Baldr in her company, knew all about this, of course; about how the Sun had gone down in the sea and lost its power.
29
The army's father chose for her
rings and pendants,
owned wise speech
and animated objects (the mistletoe)
to make predictions with,
she looked into every world.
This verse is linked to Kauna and Svartr. The god said the key words he had to know to receive education from the sorceress in the grave, and showed her the mistletoe; this was the key he needed to be allowed to take the valuables with him from the grave mound when he left. He learned how to make predictions for the future year (for every “house”, “world”, i. e. every month of the year).
30
She saw those who choose the fallen/chosen
come from far away,
ready to ride
to the divine folk;
guilt held shield,
thrust the other,
strife, battle, stave bearer
and spear thrust.
Now they are all counted,
the fearless women of the ravagers,
ready to ride the ground
like choosers of the fallen/chosen.
This verse is connected to Kauna and Gebo, Svartr and Heimdallr. The goddesses equipped the gods with weapons and shields, from the grave, and made them ready to fight and kill Höðr in the religious bear and wolf hunt, starting the first day of the new year.
31
I saw Baldr,
the blood stained and glorious god,
child of Óðinn,
persecuted by fate;
a stave grew up
on the old plain,
thin and very beautiful,
mistletoe.
This verse is linked to Kauna and Gebo, Svartr and Heimdallr. In the tomb the god found the body of the god Baldr, and gave him the mistletoe so that he would get his strength back, grow up again and come back from the dead.
32
This tree,