''Baldrs draumar'' (Old Norse: '

Baldr Baldr (Old Norse also Balder, Baldur) is a god in Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, he is a son of the god Odin and the goddess Frigg, and has numerous brothers, such as Thor and Váli. In wider Germanic mythology, the god was known in ...

's dreams') or ''Vegtamskviða'' is an

Eddic poem The ''Poetic Edda'' is the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems in alliterative verse. It is distinct from the closely related ''Prose Edda'', although both works are seminal to the study of Old Norse p ...

which appears in the manuscript

AM 748 I 4to AM 748 I 4to is an Icelandic vellum manuscript fragment containing several Eddaic poems. It dates to the beginning of the 14th century. AM 748 I is split into two parts. AM 748 I a 4to is kept in the Arnamagnæan Institute in Copenhagen. AM 74 ...

. It describes the myth of

's death consistently with ''

Gylfaginning ''Gylfaginning'' (Old Norse: 'The Beguiling of Gylfi' or 'The Deluding of Gylfi'; 13th century Old Norse pronunciation ) is the first main part of the 13th century ''Prose Edda'', after the initial Prologue. The ''Gylfaginning'' takes the form of ...

''. Bellows suggest that the poem was composed in the mid 10th century as well as the possibility that the author also composed ''

Völuspá ''Völuspá'' (also ''Vǫluspá'', ''Vǫlospá'', or ''Vǫluspǫ́''; Old Norse: 'Prophecy of the völva, a seeress') is the best known poem of the ''Poetic Edda''. It dates back to the tenth century and tells the story from Norse Mythology of ...

'' or at least drew from it, pointing at the similarity of stanza 11 in ''Baldrs draumar'' and stanzas 32-33 in ''Völuspá''. Additionally, the 14th stanza of ''

Þrymskviða ''Þrymskviða'' (Þrym's Poem; the name can be Old Norse orthography, anglicised as ''Thrymskviða'', ''Thrymskvitha'', ''Thrymskvidha'' or ''Thrymskvida'') is one of the best known poems from the ''Poetic Edda''. The Norse mythology, Norse my ...

'' is almost identical to Baldrs draumar's 1st stanza. Only in the last sentence do the two diverge from one another. Guðni argued that Þrymskviða was the younger poem of the two and it had received the stanza from Baldrs draumar.

Synopsis and text

has been having nightmares.

Odin Odin (; from ) is a widely revered god in Norse mythology and Germanic paganism. Most surviving information on Odin comes from Norse mythology, but he figures prominently in the recorded history of Northern Europe. This includes the Roman Em ...

rides to Hel to investigate. He finds the grave of a ''

völva In Germanic paganism, a seeress is a woman said to have the ability to foretell future events and perform sorcery. They are also referred to with many other names meaning "prophetess", "staff bearer" and "sorceress", and they are frequently calle ...

'' and resurrects her. Their conversation follows, where the völva tells Odin about Baldr's fate. In the end Odin asks her a question which reveals his identity and the völva tells him to ride home.

Form and date

The poem is one of the shortest Eddic poems, consisting of 14 ''

fornyrðislag Old Norse poetry encompasses a range of verse forms written in the Old Norse language, during the period from the 8th century to as late as the far end of the 13th century. Old Norse poetry is associated with the area now referred to as Scandinav ...

'' stanzas. Some late paper manuscripts contain about five more stanzas, those are thought to be of young origin.

Sophus Bugge Elseus Sophus Bugge (5 January 1833 – 8 July 1907) was a Norwegian philologist and linguist. His scholarly work was directed to the study of runic inscriptions and Norse philology. Bugge is best known for his theories and his work on the runi ...

believed them to have been composed by the author of '' Forspjallsljóð'', which is thought to have been written in the 17th century. Bellows, on the other hand, suggests the poem is much older but could not date it earlier than the tenth century.

Influence

The confrontation between The Wanderer (Wotan) and Erda in Act 3, Scene 1 of

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...

's opera

Siegfried Siegfried is a German-language male given name, composed from the Germanic elements ''sig'' "victory" and ''frithu'' "protection, peace". The German name has the Old Norse cognate ''Sigfriðr, Sigfrøðr'', which gives rise to Swedish ''Sigfrid' ...

is based upon ''Baldrs draumar''. The poem inspired a

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

, ''

Baldurs draumar ''Baldur's Dreams'' () is a ballet by the Norwegian composer Geirr Tveitt. It is loosely based on the poem '' Baldrs draumar'' from the ''Poetic Edda''. It has never been staged as an actual ballet. The music was performed by a symphony orchest ...

'' (''Baldur's Dreams''), by the Norwegian

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

Geirr Tveitt Geirr Tveitt (born Nils Tveit; 19 October 1908 – 1 February 1981) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. Tveitt was a central figure of the national movement in Norwegian cultural life during the 1930s. Life Early years Tveitt was born in Be ...

, first staged in 1938.

References

Bibliography

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External links

English translations

Baldrs Draumar
Translation and commentary by H. A. Bellows
Baldrs Draumar
English translation by Eiður Eyþórsson, along with the Old Norse version.

Old Norse editions

's edition of the manuscript text
Baldrs draumar
Guðni Jónsson's edition of the text with normalized spelling

Facsimile of the original manuscript