Unnamed Poem in Ljoðaháttr


Alone went Bölverk
To Baugi’s fields
To harvest not hay, but thralls
 
And nine men’s work
Would the wanderer do
To sip in Suttung’s halls

He worked ‘til winter
When wages were due
But every etin knows greed

He put on the scale-skin
And slithered through stone
Tunneling towards the mead

To Gunnlöd he came
The keeper of Kvasir
And wooed the ward-maiden there

Three nights of joy
Was the giantess paid
For Óðinn to drink Óðrerir

The treasure of Suttung
Now safely stored
Farmatýr flees as a raptor

But Sigföðr soaring
Was spotted by Suttung
The brother of Baugi flies after

The Æsir assembled
To snatch up the prize
Vats and vessels spread wide

But some of the plunder
Would plummet to earth
The poet-fools’ part set aside

The rest of the bounty
From Bölverk’s brave feat
With wordsmiths he’ll willingly share

Its Grimnir’s to give
The gift of glib tongue
With horn I hail Hangatýr

Written by Joe Mandato, Vingolf



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