Asatru Folk Assembly - December 29, 2023


Alvíssmál, a reading

Hosted by
Steve McNallen
Mentioned
Aravis Thor Moll Alvis Spake Alvismar Alistair Johnson Gering Arvis Elvis Flame Malt Malk Moon Calm
12⧸27⧸23 Victory Never Sleeps, Episode 77 - Charming of the Plow Baldrs draumar, a reading

Episode Stats


Length

10 minutes

Words per minute

137.43

Word count

1,412

Sentence count

56

Harmful content

Toxicity

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

21

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

The Ballad of Alvis, or The Song of the All-Wise, is one of the most famous poems in the ancient Icelandic sagas, but it's not a traditional love letter to Thor. It's a poem about a young girl named Arvids, who wants to marry Thor's daughter.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Alvis Mall
00:00:21.920 The Ballad of Alvis
00:00:24.220 The Lay of Alvis
00:00:26.280 The Song of the All-Wise
00:00:29.780 No better summary of the Arvismal can be given than Gering's statement that it is a diversified chapter from the Scaldic poets.
00:00:43.160 The narrative skeleton, contained solely in stanzas 1-8 and in 35, is of the slightest.
00:00:49.660 The dwarf Arvids, desirous marrying Thor's daughter, is compelled by the god to answer a number of questions to test his knowledge.
00:00:58.420 That all his answers are quite satisfactory makes no difference whatsoever to the outcome.
00:01:03.680 The questions and answers differ radically from those in the Vathrunas Mall.
00:01:07.820 Instead of being essentially mythological, they all concern synonyms.
00:01:12.000 Thor asks what the earth, the sky, the moon, and so on are called in each of all the worlds.
00:01:18.380 But there is no apparent significance in the fact that the gods call the earth one thing and the giants call it another.
00:01:25.220 The answers are simply strings of poetic circumlocutions, or kennings.
00:01:31.860 Concerning the use of these kennings in Scaldic poetry, see the introductory note to the Hymnskvita.
00:01:40.080 Malt is presumably right in dating the poem as late as the 12th century,
00:01:44.680 assigning it to the period of the Icelandic renaissance of Scaldic poetry.
00:01:48.780 It appears to have been a work of a man skilled in poetic construction.
00:01:51.880 The Lord's questions, for instance, are neatly balanced in pairs.
00:01:55.220 and fully familiar with the intricacies of skaldic diction, but distinctly weak in this mythology.
00:02:02.940 In other words, it is learned rather than spontaneous poetry.
00:02:06.400 Fenner Johnson's attempt to make it a 10th century Norwegian poet baffles logic.
00:02:12.520 Vikfesson is pretty sure that the poem shows marked traces of Celtic influence,
00:02:16.960 which is by no means incompatible with Malk's theory.
00:02:20.400 See the introductory note to the Rigsstule.
00:02:22.780 The poem is found only in Regius, where it follows the term Scevita, Snorist quotes stanzas 2, C, and 30,
00:02:33.060 and the manuscripts of the prose that are giving the name of the poem as Alvismar, Alvinsmar, or Olvismar.
00:02:40.940 It is apparently in excellent condition without serious errors of transmission,
00:02:45.120 although interpolations or omissions in such a poem might have been made so easily as to defy detection.
00:02:51.980 Translation of many of the synonyms presents, of course, unusual difficulties,
00:02:57.200 particularly as many of the Norse words can be properly rendered in English only by more or less extended phrases.
00:03:03.480 I have kept to the original meanings as closely as I could without utterly destroying the metarical structure.
00:03:14.040 Alvis Moll
00:03:15.080 Alvis Spake
00:03:18.880 Now shall the bride my benches adorn, and homeward haste forthwith.
00:03:25.560 Eager for wedlock to all shall I seem, nor at home shall I rob me of rest.
00:03:31.920 Thor spake,
00:03:33.660 What prey art thou, why so pale round the nose, by the dead hast thou laid of late?
00:03:39.460 To a giant like dost thou look, methinks, thou wast not born for the bride.
00:03:44.900 At this am I, and under the earth my home neath the rocks I have
00:03:50.040 With a wagon-guider a word do I seek
00:03:52.740 That the gods their bond not break
00:03:55.440 Break it shall I, for over the bride her father has foremost right
00:04:00.820 At home was I not when the promise thou hast 0.82
00:04:03.820 And I give her a loan to the gods
00:04:06.140 What hero claims such right to hold
00:04:09.780 O'er the bride that shines so bright
00:04:11.780 Not many will know thee, thou wandering man, who was bought with rings to bear thee.
00:04:20.020 Vingthor the wanderer, wide am I, and I am Sithgrami's son.
00:04:25.160 Against my will shalt thou get the maid, and win the marriage word.
00:04:30.300 Thy goodwill now shall I quickly get, and win the marriage word.
00:04:34.580 I long to have, and I would not lack, this snow-white maid for mine.
00:04:39.000 Thou love of the maid, I may not keep thee
00:04:43.500 From winning thou get so wise
00:04:45.700 If of every world thou canst tell me all
00:04:50.120 That now I wish to know
00:04:52.420 Answer me, Arvis, thou knowest all 0.99
00:04:56.500 Dwarf of the doom of men 0.98
00:04:59.000 What call thee the earth that lies before all
00:05:02.360 In each and every world?
00:05:05.760 Earth to men, field to the gods it is
00:05:08.960 the ways it is called by the wains evergreen by the giants the glower by elves the moist by the
00:05:15.900 holy ones high answer me alas thou knowest all dwarf of the doom of men what call they the heaven
00:05:23.720 beheld of the high one in each and every world heaven men call it the height of the gods the
00:05:31.200 wains the weaver of winds giants the upper out elves the fair of the dwarfs the dripping all
00:05:37.600 Answer me, Alvis, thou knowest all, dwarf of the doom of men
00:05:42.560 What call they the moon the men behold in each and every world?
00:05:48.200 Moon with men, flame the gods among, the wheel in the house of hell
00:05:52.540 The goer, the giants, the gleamer, the dwarfs, the elves, the teller of time 0.97
00:05:57.860 Answer me, Alvis, thou knowest all, dwarfs of the doom of men
00:06:03.800 What call it a sun that all men see in each and every world? 1.00
00:06:09.140 Men call it sun, God's orb of the sun, the deceiver of the wall and the dwarfs. 0.84
00:06:14.420 The giants, the ever-right, elves, farewell, are glowing the sons of the gods. 0.99
00:06:20.240 Answer me, Alvis, thou knowest all, dwarf of the doom of men.
00:06:24.440 What call it the clouds that keep the rains in each and every world?
00:06:29.500 Clouds men named them, rain hope gods called them.
00:06:32.060 The wains call them kites of the wind, water-hoped giants, weather-might elves, the hellmen of secrets in hell.
00:06:40.540 Answer me, Elvis, thou knowest all, dwarf of the doom of men.
00:06:44.720 What call they the wind, the windest fares, in each and every world?
00:06:49.900 When do men call it the gods, the waverer, the nailer, the hellly high ones,
00:06:55.480 the wailer of the giants, roaring winder, the elves, in hell the blistering blast? 0.69
00:07:02.060 Answer me, Aravis, thou knowest all, dwarf of the doom of men.
00:07:06.340 What call they the calm, the quiet lies, in each and every world? 1.00
00:07:11.740 Calm, men call it, the quiet, the gods, the wanes, the hush of the winds.
00:07:17.180 The sultry, the giants, elves, day, stillness, the dwarfs, the shelter of day. 0.98
00:07:24.640 Answer me, Aravis, thou knowest all, dwarf of the doom of men.
00:07:29.100 What call thee the sea, whereon men sail, in each and every world? 0.94
00:07:35.260 Sea, men call it gods of the smooth line, the wave, as he is called by the wains.
00:07:40.780 Ilhom, the giants, drinkstuff the elves, for the dwarfs' name is the deep. 0.68
00:07:46.960 Answer me, Alistair, knowest all, dwarf of the doom of men. 0.86
00:07:51.020 What call thee the fire, the flames of men, in each and all the worlds? 0.78
00:07:54.820 fire men call it in the flame of the gods by the wains it is wildfire called
00:08:01.260 the biter by giants the burner by dwarves the swift in the house of hell
00:08:06.060 answer me out of this thou knowest all dwarf of the doom of men what call they the wood that
00:08:13.240 grows for mankind in each and every world men call it the wood the gods the main of the field
00:08:19.480 Seaweed of hills and hell
00:08:21.440 Flame food the giants 0.99
00:08:23.560 Fair limb the elves
00:08:24.720 The wand is the call by the wains
00:08:26.920 Answer me Arvus
00:08:30.280 Thou knowest all 1.00
00:08:31.260 Dwarf of the doom of men 0.98
00:08:32.560 What call thee the night 0.73
00:08:34.140 The daughter of Noor
00:08:35.520 In each heavenly world
00:08:37.340 Night men call it
00:08:39.520 Darkness gods name it 0.99
00:08:40.900 The hood the holy ones hide
00:08:42.840 The giants the lightless
00:08:44.920 The elves sleep's joy 1.00
00:08:46.300 The dwarfs the weaver of dreams 0.99
00:08:48.300 Answer me, Erebus, thou knowest all, dwarf of the doom of men
00:08:52.740 What call thee the seed that is sown by men in each and every world?
00:08:58.560 Men call it grain and corn, the gods, growth in the world of the wains
00:09:02.700 They eaten by giants, drink stuffed by elves, and held a slender stem
00:09:07.620 Answer me, Erebus, thou knowest all, dwarf of the doom of men
00:09:12.060 What call thee ale that is quaffed of men in each and every world?
00:09:16.500 Ale among men, beer the gods among
00:09:20.580 In the world of the wains, the foaming
00:09:22.560 Bright draught with giants, mead with dwellers in hell
00:09:26.300 The feast draught with sooting suns
00:09:28.980 In a single breast I never have seen
00:09:32.820 More wealth of wisdom old
00:09:34.360 But with treacherous wiles must I now betray thee 0.92
00:09:37.900 The day has caught thee, dwarf
00:09:40.260 Now the sun shines here in the hall
00:09:46.500 Thank you.