Book of Song

Sonnatorrek, The

by Egil's Saga

[Em] Tardily, takes my [B5add#5] toungue to move,
[G] and to stir the [Am] steel yard of [Em] song;
Hopeless is’t about Odin’s theft [1]
hard to draw from the heart’s fastness!

Sorely Ran [2] has smitten me
left me bare of bosom-friends;
the sea snapped my sib’s tight links
a strong strand is stripped from me.

If my suit with sword I could press,
all over for the ale-smith [3] were it:
Could I kill the storm’s kinsman,
Aegir’s (4) might I would meet as foe.

Hard my lot, for Herian’s [5] foe’s [6]
stern-sister [7] stands on the ness. [9]
Gladly though and ungrudgingly
with light heart, Hel [8] I will bide.

[(1) Odin’s theft is poetry
(2) Ran was Aegir’s wife
(3) Aegir, also brewer of the Gods
(4) Aegir is also the Sea God
(5) Herian is another name for Odin
(6) Herian’s foe is Fenris wolf
(7) The wolf’s sister is Hel
(8) Hel is a death Goddess
(9) She stands at Digranes where Egil’s father and sons are buried]