Emblas Saga

Ek dreyma umb eldr Ek dreyma umb dauðl Hvar stjornur hrjóða grima himinn Eldr ok dauðl - myrkr ok rauða Tveir andilt þú hafa O grima þǫgn In the beginning there was only darkness Of icy mist and smoke A darkness so completely dark By war and death invoked Sparkling flames would dare to reach Across the arid void And melt the rim of ice and frost That framed it from the north Oh, the birth of gods, the fall of foes Oh, children of the tree Now listen close, and hear the truth Of how you came to be First was the giant, Ymir his name Then the cow Authumla, out of the melting ice they came From Ymirs' palm another pair of giants, born and bred Then left and right, His feet would mate to birth a child with several heads Authumla fed on frost in all her pride and grace She woke the very first of gods by licking on his face She ate away the icy cage that held him in his fury A man of beauty and of might by the name of Burí Burí somehow got a son, who somehow got a wife Burí, Borr and Bestla – the avengers of their time Then Bestla bore the children who made this story true Vile, Ve and Odin – who created me and you Memories will fade from man The snow of death will fall upon The children of Wodan Distant echoes, whispering Of how it all began For the children of Wodan Three were the brothers, three were the gods In a world of giants, conspiring how to turn the odds They slayed the very oldest, the one who was the first Within the flowing blood - every giant was submerged These waters of decay would never cease to flow Creating every sea and every river that we know And while the giants drowned, the gods got the idea To take the corpse of Ymir and make the earth appear His body would become the soil, his skull became the sky And then they threw his giant brains aloft to form the clouds His teeth became the rocks, they made mountains from his bones And on the meadows through his hair the summer breeze was blown Out of the ashes and into the light The dead will make room for the living Deep in the darkest of nights The end is another beginning The fire in my dreams The death so long foreseen The darkest sky Adorned by lights What does it hide? Out of the ashes rise The glowing seed of life The darkest sky Two faces hides Oh, silent night When the gods were done They took a little break A stroll upon the beach To take a breath and contemplate Two logs of ash and elm Lay stranded on the shore The children of the forest The children of the gods From dead to animated And no longer adrift For like the fairy godmothers They gave them special gifts The first would grant them spirit And life beyond the plant The second gave them movement And the wit to understand The third would give them faces Their hearing and their sight And thus the very first of humans Were brought to life Memories will fade from man The snow of death will fall upon The children of Wodan Distant echoes, whispering Of how it all began For the children of Wodan