Gerður Kristný > Quotes

“Faxið glóandi akur
taglið knippi af korni
His mane a sunlit field
his tail a sheaf of corn”
― Gerður Kristný, Bloodhoof

“Heimfús stefnir hugur minn
yfir vorstillt vatn
járnfrosinn jökul
It’s homewards with longing that my heart flies on
over water calmed by spring
over iron-hard ice-fields”
― Gerður Kristný, Bloodhoof

“Óðara læstu tíkur þrjár í mig tönnum:
Sorg Einsemd Þjáning
With rapid bounds three bitches caught me fast in their teeth:
Sorrow Solitude Suffering”
― Gerður Kristný, Bloodhoof

“Freyr stóð við gerðið
úlfgrá augun eltu mig
There stood Freyr by the fence-enclosed field
the wolf-grey eyes pursued me”
― Gerður Kristný, Bloodhoof

“Skírnir spun a tale of a land of sweet calm with a leafy-branched forest
bearing apples of gold
Would I care for a bite?”
― Gerður Kristný, Bloodhoof

“Mother
appears in dreams like mist on a hillside receding as sleep recedes”
― Gerður Kristný, Bloodhoof

“There have been various scholarly interpretations of the original story. One is that it portrays the quickening of the crops (with Gerður thought of as meaning ‘an enclosed field’) by the sun, represented by Skírnir (‘the shining one’): the awakening of winter into spring. Long ago W. Wägner, in his book Asgard and the Gods (1884, p. 204), compared it to the story of the Sleeping Beauty, ‘wakened to new life by the warm kiss of the sun-prince’ – an idea ironically reflected in the present poem with its reference to a glass casket like that of Snow White. A more recent suggestion is that Skírnismál is concerned with the acquisition of power by Norwegian kings.”
― Gerður Kristný, Bloodhoof

“steypt í stálkaldan ís
steeped in steel-cold ice”
― Gerður Kristný, Bloodhoof

“There is my country wrapped in calm of night steeped in steel-cold ice”
― Gerður Kristný, Bloodhoof