Hárbarðsljóð, a reading
Episode Stats
Harmful content
Misogyny
3
sentences flagged
Toxicity
5
sentences flagged
Hate speech
17
sentences flagged
Summary
The poem of Harbad's ljordh is a short poem about an exchange of insults between Odin and Thor at a fjord crossing, written in a few meters and a collection of meters. It is atypical of the usual verbal battle, in which the winner is the one with the best strategy and eloquence. In this case, Thor is the slow-witted one.
Transcript
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Harbath's Lyod, Harbath's Song, the Poem of Harbath
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Odin in the skies and Thor meet at a fjord crossing.
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Odin refuses to ferry Thor over the water and the two engage in a ritual exchange of
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Harbad's Ljöð is typical and atypical of this kind of exchange or fleeting, a verbal
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The best known examples are the exchange between Beowulf and Unferð in Beowulf, or between
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Hagen and the Ferryman in the Niebuhrungenlied.
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Typically, the winner is the contestant best able to prove his courage and manhood while
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demonstrating the cowardice, laziness, and effemacy of his opponents.
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In Harbad's Song, however, such is Odin's use of strategy and rhetoric, and so slow-witted
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is Thor, that Odin emerges a clearer winner despite the obvious advantages Thor has in
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strength and courage in battling against giants.
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The nub of Harbad's Song, however, would be the statement in verse 24 that Odin owns
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the nobles who fall in battle and Thor owns the race of thralls, establishing the difference
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Or as Carol Clover has suggested, the poem may be intended as a parody of the usual fleeting
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poem. The poem is composed in a motley collection of meters, Ljordhater, Marahater, some unrecognizable
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meters, and some odd bits of prose. Many of the episodes alluded to by the two gods are
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Thor was on his way back from a journey in the east, and came to an inlet.
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On the other side of the sound was a ferryman with a boat.
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Who is that fellow yonder, on the further shore of the sound?
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What kind of a peasant is yon, that calls o'er the bay?
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me over the sound, I will feed thee therefore in the morning. A basket I have on my back,
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and food therein none better. At leisure I ate ere the house I left, of herrings and
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porridge so plenty I had. The ferryman spake, Of thy morning feats art thou proud, but the
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future thou knowest not wholly, doleful thine homecoming is, thy mother, methinks, is dead.
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Thore spake, now hast thou said, to each must seem, the mightiest grief, that my mother is dead.
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The ferryman spake, Three good dwellings methakes thou hast not.
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Barefoot thou standest, and wearest a beggar's dress, Not even hose dost thou have.
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Thor spake, Steer that hither the boat, the landing here shall I show thee.
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But who's the craft that thou keepest on the shore?
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The ferryman spake, Hildolf is he who bade me have it, a hero wise.
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He bade me no robbers to steal, no stealers of steeds, but worthy men, and those whom
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Say now thy name, if over the sound thou would fare.
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My name indeed shall I tell, though in danger I am, and all my race.
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I am Odin's son, Meili's brother, and Magni's father, the strong one of the gods.
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Thor, now speech canst thou give, and now would I know what name thou hast.
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The ferryman spake, Harbarth am I, and seldom I hide my name.
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Thor spake, Why shouldst thou hide thy name, if quarrel thou hast not?
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Harbaugh spake, and though I had a quarrel, from such as thou art, yet none the less my
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Though spake, great trouble me thinks, would it be to come to thee, to wade the waters
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Beakling, well shall I pay thy mocking words, If could cross the sound, I come.
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Harbarth spake, Here shall I stand, and await thee here.
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Thou hast found since Rungnir died no fiercer man.
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Fain art thou to tell how with Rungnir I fought the haughty giant, whose head of stone was
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made, and yet I felled him, and stretched him before me.
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Harbarth spake, Five full winters with Fjolvar was I, and dwelt in the isle that is Algron
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called there could we fight and fed the slain much could we seek and maids could master
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harbarth spake lively women we had if they wise for us were wise are the women we had
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had, if they kind for us were. For ropes of sand they would seek to wind, and the bottom
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to dig from the deepest dale. Wiser than Arlen counselled I was, and there I slept by the
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sisters seven. And joy full great did I get from each. What, Thor, didst thou the while?
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spake, Fiazzi I fell, the great giant fierce, and I hurled the eyes of Alvardi's sun to
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Of my deeds the mightiest marks are these, that all men since can see what harbors didst
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Harbaugh spake, much lovecraft I wrought with them who ride by night, when I stole them
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by stealth from their husbands, a giant heart with hell-birth, methinks.
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His wand he gave me as gift, and I stole his wits away.
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Doris spake, thou didst repay good gifts with evil mind.
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Harbar spake, the oak must have what it shaves from another, in such things each for himself.
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Tor spake, eastward I felled, of the giants I felled, their ill-working women who went to the mountain.
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And large were the giants' throng, if all were alive.
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no man would be there in Midgard more what Harbarth did thou the while Harbarth spake
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in Valand I was in wolves I raised princes I angered in peace brought never
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the noble will fall in the fight hath the Odin and Thor hath the race of the thralls
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Thor spake, Unequal gifts of men wouldst thou give to the gods,
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Thor has might enough, but never a heart, For cowardly fear in a glove wasst thou fain
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to crawl, and there forgot thou wast Thor, afraid there wast thou, thy fear was such
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to fart or sneeze, lest Fjallar should hear.
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Thor spake, thou womanish Harbath, to hell would I smite thee straight, could mine arm
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But spake, wherefore reach over the sound, since strife we have none?
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Door spake, eastward I was, in the river I guarded well, where the sons of Svarling
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sought me there, stones did they hurl, small joy did they have of winning, before me there,
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To ask for a piece did they fare, What Harbarth did thou the while?
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Harbarth spake, Eastward I was, and spake with a certain one.
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I played with a linen-white maid, And met her by stealth.
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I gladdened the gold-decked one, And she granted me joy.
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Harbarth spake, thy help did I need then, Thor, to hold the wight made fast.
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Thor spake, gladly had I been there, my help to thee had been given.
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Harbarth spake, I might have trusted thee then, didst thou not betray thy throat.
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Tor spake, No hillbiter am I, In truth like an old leather shoe in spring.
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Harbarth spoke, What tor dist thou the while?
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Tor spake, In Hlesi the brides of the berserkers slew I,
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Most evil they were, and all they betrayed.
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Harbarth spake, shamedest thou, wind, that woman thou slewest thore.
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Thore spake, she wolves they were like, and woman but little.
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My ship, which well I trimmed, did they shake,
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with clubs of iron they threatened, and theography they drove off.
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In the host I was, that hither fell, the banners to raise, and the spears to redden.
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Wilt thou now say that hatred thou soughtest to bring us?
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A ring for thy hand shall make all right for thee, as the judge decides who sets up two at peace.
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Where foundest thou so foul and scornful as speech? More foul as speech I never have before heard.
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I learned it from men, the men so old, who dwell in the hills of home.
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Thor spake, a name full of good, to heaps of stones thou givest, when thou call'st them hills of home.
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Thor spake, ill for thee comes, thy keenest of tongue.
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If the water I choose to wade, louder I wean, than a wolf thou criest, if I blow of my hammer
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Harbroth spake, Sif has a lover at home, and him shouldst thou meet, more fitting it were
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Thor spake, thy tongue still makes thee say what seems most ill to me.
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Havart spake, truth do I speak, but slow on thy way thou art.
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Far hast thou gone, if none in the boat thou hast failed.
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Thor spake, Thou womanish Harbath, here hast thou held me too long.
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Harbath spake, I thought not ever that Asa Thor would be hindered by a ferryman thus from firing.
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Row hither thy boat, no more scoffing set Magni's father across.
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Harbaugh spake, From the sound go hence, The passenger thou hast not.
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Dorf spake, The way now show me, Since thou takest me not o'er the water.
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Harbaugh spake, To refuse it is little, To fare it is long,
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A while to the stock, and a while to the stone.
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Then the road to thy left, till Verland thou reachest,
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and the road of her children she shows him to Odin's realm.
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Harbarth spake, with toil and trouble perchance,
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Short now shall be our speech, for thou speakest in mockery only.
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The passage thou gavest me not, I shall pay thee, if ever we meet.
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Get hence, where every single thing shall have thee.