Sigrdrífumál

Sigrdrífumál (also known as Brynhildarljóð[1]) is the conventional title given to a section of the Poetic Edda text in Codex Regius.

It follows Fáfnismál without interruption, and it relates the meeting of Sigurðr with the valkyrie Brynhildr, here identified as Sigrdrífa ("driver to victory").

[2] Its content consists mostly of verses concerned with runic magic and general wisdom literature, presented as advice given by Sigrdrífa to Sigurd.

Finally, beginning with stanza 22 and running until the end of the preserved text is a set of counsels comparable to those in Loddfáfnismál.

This passage is probably an accretion unrelated to the Brynhild fragment, and it contains in turn a number of what are likely interpolations to the original text.

[5] The first two stanzas are given below in close transcription (Bugge 1867), in normalized Old Norse (Finnur Jónsson 1932) and in the translations by Thorpe (1866) and of Bellows (1936): Heill dagr heilir dags synir heil nott oc nipt oreiþom ꜹgom litiþ ocr þinig oc gefit sitiondom sigr

Bugge 1867)[6] Hęill dagr, hęilir dags synir, hęil nótt ok nipt; óręiðum augum lítið okr þinig ok gefið sitjǫndum sigr.

Hęilir æsir, hęilar ǫ́synjur, hęil sjá hin fjǫlnýta fold, mál ok manvit gefið okr mærum tvęim ok læknishęndr, meðan lifum.

Beer I bring thee, tree of battle, Mingled of strength and mighty fame; Charms it holds and healing signs, Spells full good, and gladness-runes.

[12] The following stanzas address Ølrunar "Ale-runes" (7), biargrunar "birth-runes" (8), brimrunar "wave-runes" (9), limrunar "branch-runes" (10), malrunar "speech-runes" (11), hugrunar "thought-runes" (12).

The same holds for stanzas 18-19, which return to the mythological acquisition of the runes, and the passing of their knowledge to the æsir, elves, vanir and mortal men.

Shaved off were the runes that of old were written, And mixed with the holy mead, And sent on ways so wide; So the gods had them, so the elves got them, And some for the Wanes so wise, And some for mortal men.

They serve as introduction for the remaining part of the text, stanzas 22-37 (of which, however, only 22-28 and the first line of 29 are preserved in Codex Regius), which are gnomic in nature.