Augury

1 In bygone days the slaughter-gods had a good bag from hunting,
they were keen to drink before they got enough;
they shook the twigs and looked at the augury,*
they found that at Ægir’s was an ample choice of cauldrons.

2 The mountain-dweller sat there, cheerful as a child,
very like the mash-blender’s son;
Odin’s son looked into his eyes in defiance:
‘You shall often prepare a feast for the Æsir.’

3 The contentious man annoyed the giant;
he thought how to avenge himself soon on the god;
he asked Sif’s husband to fetch him a cauldron,
‘in which I can brew the ale for all of you’.

4 Nor could the glorious gods,
the mighty Powers, get one anywhere,
until privately Tyr in trustworthy friendship
gave vital good advice to Hlorridi.

5 ‘To the east of Elivagar
lives Hymir the very wise, at the sky’s end;
my father, the brave man, owns a cauldron,*
a capacious kettle, a league deep.’

6 ‘Do you know if we can get that liquid-boiler?’
‘If, friend, we use trickery to do it.’

7 They journeyed hard that day, and far
from Asgard, until they came to Egil.
He secured their goats with splendid horns,
they headed for the hall which Hymir owned.


- Poetic Edda, Hymiskvida


("shook the twigs: twigs or wooden slips seem to be involved in Norse prognostications, though how they are used is not clear. In the Seeress’s Prophecy, v. 60, Hænir chooses a slip of wood for divination. Probably a number of sticks carved with runic symbols were thrown." - from the Explanatory Notes section included with the translation)