The Völuspa

The Völuspa is one of the poetic songs of the E lder Edda,

which were first compiled and written down in the 13th century
in Iceland. It is believed that many of the anonymous songs
of the Elder Edda were composed and recited several hundred
years before that, some perhaps as early as the fifth or sixth
century CE. Since it was written in the Old Norse language and
script, I have consulted several modern English and German
translations to arrive at my version. Völuspa means “Visions of
the Völva.” Völvas were clairvoyant prophetic seeresses in the
pre-Christian Nordic culture. In this poem an unnamed völva
is relating her visions in response to questions posed to her by
Odin/Wodan, the knowledge-seeking god of shamans, warriors
and poets.
Ever since I wrote about and quoted from the Völuspa
in my book of The Well of Remembrance (Shambhala, 1994), I
have admired this poem with its awesome visions of the origins
of the world, the creative activities and conflicts of gods and
humans, and the stunning prophecies of planetary destruction
and renewal that seem to be coming true in our time. (In the
following, the section headings, in italics, are added by me to
facilitate the following of the story. They are not part of the poem).
—Ralph Meltzer, 2018

2
There was no land, nor sea,
Invocation Nor ocean waves.
Hear me in silence, No earth was there,
Ye kin of the Holy Ones, No heavens above,
Both the higher and lower, the No growing grass,
Children of Heimdall.1 Only a gaping abyss.
You, Wodan2, want me The three sons of Bor4,
To tell of the world Both giants and gods,
As well as I know, Uplifted the land, they
From the earliest times. Made mighty Midgard.5
Origin of the Earth and Sun The sun from the South
Shone bright on stoneground.
I know of the giants, The sweet greening grass
Primeval and great, Grew up from the earth.
Who raised me and fed me
In times long ago. In the South was the sun,
Great sister of moon,
I know of nine worlds, Extending her arms
And nine great roots, Along the edge of the sky.6
Of that wonderful tree
So deep in the Earth. Neither sun nor planets
Were set in their places.
There was only Ymir3, The moon did not know
The primordial giant. Yet what powers she had.
3
To gather in council Three mighty females,
The Holy Ones came. Daughters of giants,
The councilors met Awesome and terrible
To converse and to speak. Came from their giant home.8

They gave names to the night, To gather in council

To morning and noontime; The Holy Ones came.
To twilight and evening, The councilors met,
The measures of time. To speak and to ask:

Aesir gods, giants, dwarves Should dwarves make beings

and humans From the rivers and rocks,
From the blood and the bones
The Aesir7 came down Of Ymir the Earth?
From the shining fields.
Altars and temples Many forms they created,
Were built in the mountains. Resembling humans –
The dwarves of the earth,
They built the forges, As they were commanded.
They hammered the ores,
Made metal tongs Then came three gods
And other fine tools. From the clan of the Aesir9,
They were mighty and merciful –
Board games they played, They came down to the shore.
Content in their garden.
Nothing was lacking – On the beach they found lying,
They found plenty of gold. Found an ash and an elm10,
4
But listless and lifeless, From there come three maidens,
With no spark of life. Three women of wisdom,
From the deep waters
They had no souls, At the root of the Tree.
No senses either,
No warmth of life, One is called Urd,
And no living color. Verdandi another,
And Skjuld is the third.13
Odin gave souls to them,
Hönir their senses, They carve into wood,
Lodur brought warmth of life Deciding the lives
And bright, blooming colors. Of the children of men,
Choosing the runes.
The World Tree and the Norns
Gullveig the Golden and
An ash-tree I know, called the Origin of War
Yggdrasill, Odins Horse.11
Sparkling moisture And this too I know –
Lies on its leaves. How war came to the world,
When Gullveig the Golden14
This is the dew that drops Was speared by the sky gods.
Down in the valley.
Evergreen stands the World Tree. Three times they burned her
Urd’s well at its roots.12 In the Warfather’s hall,
The thrice-born goddess
And still she lives on.

5
Heathen15 the called her The walls of Asgard
Wherever she wandered. Came crumbling and crashing
Seeress, sorceress, The Vanir gods raging
In soothsaying trance. Trampled the ground.

She made seidr16 magic Then the Holy Ones

Wherever she could, and Gathered in council seats
To contrary women The sky gods debated
Was always welcome. Among themselves thus:

When the Holy Ones Who filled the air

Gathered in council seats With the stench of betrayal?
The sky gods debated Who promised Freyja
Among themselves thus: As a wife to the giants?19

Should the Aesir gods Great Thor the Thunderer

First pay tribute, or Fought fiercely the foe
Should all gods equally He seldom stays still
Offerings receive?17 When he hears of such deeds.

Odin hurled his spear Now vows were broken

At the enemy hosts – And binding agreements.
And so for the first time The gods’ solemn oaths
War came to the world.18 Were forgotten again.

6
Mimir’s Well, Odin’s Eye Would you know still more?
Necklace and bracelets
I know where Heimdall’s This Father God gave me
Horn is hidden: For my far-seeing visions
Under the highest and
Holiest of trees20. And words of wisdom.
Far and wide do I see
In high-foaming spray Throughout all of the worlds.
Water falling I see
In the well, Odin’s eye. Balder’s murder,
Would you know still more? Loki’s punishment
Alone I sat, outside, Now Balder I see
When the Old One came The god who is bleeding,
That terrible Aesir god His doom was determined –
And looked in my eye. As great Odin’s son.
For what do you ask? Growing slender and tall
What seek you from me? Among the green trees
Odin, I know where Is the mistle-toe shrub22
You’ve hidden your eye: So tender and fair.
In Mimir’s marvelous well. This fragile sprig
Mimir drinks mead21 So seeming harmless
Every day in the morning Was horrible weapon
From the well, Odin’s pledge. When hurled by Hödur.

7
Fair Frigga does weep There I see Nidhögg25
In her watery home. Suck blood from the corpses
Valhalla’s misfortune. That man-eating monster.
Would you know still more? Would you know still more?

A prisoner I see A dwelling I see

By the boiling springs: Far away from the sun
The treacherous Loki’s 23 Near the Land of the Dead
Miserable form. It’s gates to the North.

There too sits Sigyn Here poisonous drops

His unfortunate wife Drip from the roof 26
With woeful demeanor. And coils of serpents
Would you know still more? Encircle the walls.

Ragnarök In the East an old hag

Sits in the iron wood.
From the East flows a stream There she bears Fenrir’s27
Through poisonous lands24 Terrible brood.
Called River of Terror,
Cutting sharply with cold. One among these
In the form of a troll
Wading waist-deep Will one of these days
Through watery torrents, Swallow the sun.
Are traitors and murderers,
Adulterers too.

8
She feeds on the flesh Much woe’s in the world
Of fallen warriors And treachery too.
Spattering with blood
The seat of the gods. It’s axe-time, sword-time,
Time of shattered shields.
The sun is turned black Wind-time, wolf-time,
In the summers thereafter. Until the world breaks down.
Violent weather comes again.
Would you know still more? No one anymore
Considers the others.
Loud howls the wolf The gleaming Gjallarhorn
At the mouth of his cave. Announces the end.
He tears off his fetters
And now he runs free. Loud blows Heimdall
He lifts high the horn.
Much do I know And Odin murmurs
Far distant I see With Mimir’s head.28
The conquering gods’
Terrible fate. Yggdrasil trembles
The towering ash groans29
Brothers do battle The giant is loosened
And murder each other. The underworld quakes30
The sons of siblings
Break bonds of clan. The flaming giant31
Devours the trees.

9
What ails the Aesir? And whip up the waters.
What troubles the elves? The eagle screams on high.
The giants are roaring, With cut-up corpses
The gods meet in council. Comes the deathship.

The gnomes are groaning The giants are coming

By their gates of rock In horrible hordes.
The wise spirits of stone. And the monstrous Wolf
Would you know still more? Even Loki as well.

Loud howls the wolf From the South comes Surt32

At the mouth of his cave. Who scorches the plants
He tears off his fetters His flaming sword
And now he runs free. Burns hot as the sun.

This much do I know The mountains are cracking

Far distant I see The trollwomen reeling33
The conquering gods’ To Hel go the humans
Terrible fate. The heavens rupture.

From East comes a giant As Odin goes forth now

His shield he holds high. To fight the great wolf
The Midgard serpent coils He thrusts his sword
As raging rivers wind Through its gaping jaws.

10
Now comes another Much do I know
Thor, Son of Earth Far distant I see
This mighty warrior The conquering gods’
Battles the Serpent. Terrible fate.

Protector of Midgard Resurrection

He fights with fierce rage.
Terrified people Now again I see Earth
Are fleeing their homes. Rising up from below
Up out of the waters
The sun turns black With all greening plants.
Land sinks into the sea
And the radiant stars Falling waters are foaming.
Fall from the sky. High over the mountains
The eagle flies
Hot flames engulf Hunting for fish.
The all-nourishing tree
The searing heat rises The Aesir gods meet again
High in the heavens.34 In the shining fields.
They speak once again
Loud howls the wolf Of that terrible snake.
At the mouth of his cave
He tears off his fetters They remember the great
And now he runs free. And awesome end-time,
And ancient rune secrets
Of the High Father-God.
11
Lying in grass, they find them Down from above
Again, the golden tablets35 The mighty Lord39 comes
As they had them before To the council of gods
In the ancient times. And rules over all.

The fields will grow high36 The sun has a daughter

Without being sown This maiden will ride
All harm will be healed On the paths of her mother40
As Balder returns. After the fall of the gods.

Hödur37 and Balder Who are these maidens41

Will dwell once again Of wisdom and sense
In the halls of the high gods. That we see hovering
Would you know still more? Over the wide ocean waves?

Now a hall I see The throngs of maidens

More bright than the Sun Daughters of giants
With a red-golden roof Descend on the villages.42
Gimlé38 is its name. Protecting the humans.

There dwell the noble The End

And kind ones, forever.
Their lives free of guilt
And with gracious ease.

12
From Ralph Meltzer

Having been an admirer of Byron Metcalf's work combining

shamanic drumming and guided meditations, I was delighted
when he agreed to create a soundtrack featuring his music and
drumming with my reading of this English language version of
the amazing visions and prophecies of the Edda, originally
written in the old Norse-Germanic language in the 11th or 12th
century. In this poem an unnamed volva (seeress) is relating her
visions in response to questions posed to her by Odin/Wotan,
the knowledge-seeking god of shamans, warriors and poets. The
poem consists of short verses, each of which refers to significant
episodes in the cosmological drama of world creation, des-
truction and renewal, including stunning prophecies of processes
and events that seem to be coming true in our time.
From Byron Metcalf

Ralph Metzner is a living legend - a true icon in the field of

Transpersonal Psychology, shamanism and so much more. For more
than 30 years I've regarded Ralph as one of my most important
teachers and mentors even though we've never formally worked
together as such. So I felt incredibly honored when Ralph approached
me about collaborating on this project. Having Ralph visit my studio
and home and share some professional and personal time together
will remain one of the most treasured events of my life.

The Voluspa story is fascinating - a creation myth and a powerful

journey of death, destruction and renewal. I've never composed a
'soundtrack) before but once I found myself immersed in this project
and the story, it became clear that I needed to approach the music
production from that perspective. My long-time collaborator and
friend Dashmesh Khalsa contributed lots of sonic textures and sound
worlds that helped take the soundtrack to a much higher level. In
fact, it turned out so well that we decided to create a remix of the
soundtrack (music only) as an additional track that can support many
kinds of journey work, breathwork, inspired dance and movement and
entheogenic exploration.
NOTES
1. Heimdall is the name of the celestial gate-keeper of the Aesir gods, akin to the Roman
Janus; but here he is also regarded as the progenitor of the human race. His form is white
and luminous, and he has a horn, the Gjallarhorn, that can be heard around the world.
2. Among the many epithets for Wodan or Odin is Walvater – Chooser of the Fallen –
pointing to his choosing of warriors killed in battle, who get to go with him to Valhalla.
It was also said that fallen warriors could, if they wished, go to Feyja’s domain after
dying.
3. Ymir is the name of the primordial giant, formed from rivers and ice, in the beginnings
of the Earth, before life. From his arms and feet came male mountain and female river
giants.
4. Bor or Bur is the name of the giant who, with the giantess Bestla, fathered the first
three Aesir gods – Odin, Villi and Vé. The race of primordial giants precedes the gods
on planet Earth.
5. Midgard, the “garden in the middle”, is the temperate zone in the biosphere, with its
plants, animals and humans.
6. This verse and the next describe events from the pre-history of the planet – the course
of the sun at the solstices and the origins of the moon.
7. The “shining fields” are the supra-earthly domains, the higher worlds where the Aesir
sky gods dwell, before the creation of humans – and also where they go after the end
of the world.
8. Jötunheim, the realm of the giants, is situated to the East and Northeast of Midgard.
In modern terms, Midgard is Central Europe, and Jötunheim are the cold and icy realms
to the East and North.
9. The three Aesir gods who created the first humans are Odin, Hönir and Lodu, who
are named further below. In other parts of the Edda, the three creator brother-gods are
listed as Odin, Vili and Vé. Only Odin plays a further significant role in other mythic
texts and poems, including the Völuspa.
10. Ask refers to the ash tree and Embla possibly to the elm tree. This would therefore
be a mythos of creating humans from trees. This is one possible interpretation of these
obscure lines.
11. Yggdrasil, or “Odin’s Horse”, is one of the names of the World Tree. The name points
to its function as the axis for shamanic traveling to the upper and lower worlds.

13
12. Urd is the name of the well at the foot of the world tree, as well as the name of one
of the three norns. Urd also refers to the web of life and destiny, and thus is future-
oriented.
13. The name Skjuld relates to the German words for guilt (Schuld) and debt (Schulden),
and thus refers to the karma associated with our past actions. Verdandi is related to the
German verb werden, becoming, and thus is related to the present.
14. The name Gullveig means something like “the power of gold”. Her story, referred
to in these verses, tells of the origin of the war between the invading Aesir gods and
the indigenous Vanir deities, of whom Gullveig is one. In The Well of Remembrance,
I interpret these obscure lines as follows: the Aesir motivated by lust for gold, attack
Gullveig. But she was a goddess with powerful magic and the Vanir struck back – “and
still she lives on.”
15. Heathen is another name for the seeress, but also for the heath and the heathen
pagans.
16. Seidr is the name for the divination ceremonies of the völvas.
17. The dispute is over which group of deities, Aesir or Vanir, should be paid first – i.e.
the origin of the conflict, as always, was over gold!
18. So this is the war started: the Aesir argue with the Vanir about gold, unsuccessfully
try to kill Gullveig and then Odin throws the first spear.
19. A second cause of war is added: the treacherous Loki, who belongs to the Aesir gods,
had promised Freyja, Vanir goddess of love and beauty, to one of the giants – without
her permission, enraging her.
20. The seeress now leaves her stories of the past – origin of the world, origin of the wars –
and describes the visionary task that Odin has asked of her, in exchange for his pledging
one eye into Mimir’s well (also a waterfall). The well, the waterfall and Heimdall’s horn
are situated at the foot of the world tree Yggdrasil, the axis mundi. Through his payment
of one eye, Odin has gained access to visions of the past and the future.
21. Mimir, the Giant-Spirit of the World Tree, the Keeper of the Axis, enables the
visionary seeing into all worlds and all times. The seeing is made more vivid through
the drinking of the visionary mead. The seeress mediates the connection and the dialog
between Odin and Mimir.
22. Balder’s mother Frigga had persuaded all trees and all plants not to be part of any

14
harm to her beloved son in the combat games the Aesir liked to play. But she had
overlooked the seemingly harmless and fragile mistletoe. The cunning Loki exploited
this oversight – turning a twig of mistletoe into a spear, and putting it into the hands of
Hödur, Balder’s blind brother. The unconscious fratricide is the catalyst for the collapse
of the world order.
23. In this story, the cunning Trickster Loki acts as an enemy of the gods, though
in other stories he helps them. He is the instigator of Balder’s murder, which in the
end leads to the ragnarök. As punishment, the Aesir gods bind him to a rock (like
Prometheus). The drops from a venomous snake are collected by his wife Sigyn, instead
of falling of to his face.
24. Is this only a mythic image, or could the vision of poisoned lands in the East also refer
to the Ukrainian town of Chernobyl, near the Pripyat River, poisoned by radioactivity
in the 20th century?
25. Nidhögg is the name of the death dragon, that devours human corpses. Elsewhere it
is the name of the giant serpent, gnawing at the roots of the World Tree until it collapses.
26. In The Well of Remembrance I related the prophecies of the Völuspa with cataclysmic
earth changes in the late Middle Ages and/or in the 20th century. Such visions are not
specific as to dates. “Poisonous drops from the roof ” refer perhaps to volcanic eruptions
and/or to industrial “acid rain”.
27. Fenrir or Fenriswolf is the monster whose offspring bring about the destruction of
the world. It is a symbol of the voracious greed that fuels the runaway exploitation and
destruction of our biosphere.
28. The decapitation of Mimir, whose name is related to the Latin memor, symbolizes
our species loss of memory. Odin preserved his skull for oracular purposes, “Odin
murmurs with Mimir’s head.” Divination with a skull was/is the custom among some
Asiatic shamans.
29. The Yggdrasil tree is the world axis. Thus, when it trembles, the whole Earth starts
shaking.
30. The giant in the underworld is probably the Fenriswolf – when he breaks out of his
fetters, we get earthquakes.
31. The flaming, fiery giant, elsewhere called Surt, burned large areas of forests: in
Russia in 2010, in Northern California in 2017, increasingly in many areas of the planet.

15
32. Surt, the fire giant, brings fiery heat from the south, nearer the equator, to the
northern lands.
33. Trolls are furry, hairy female giants, who are unpredictably hostile and dangerous
to humans.
34. Another predictive vision of the Earth’s feverish over-heating in the 20th century, the
so-called “greenhouse effect.”
35. The golden tablets, with divine instructions, were given by the creators at the
beginning; and here again now, at the beginning of a new cycle of creation.
36. Here is a vision of the spontaneous regeneration and healing of the Earth, through
Balder, the green vegetation deity.
37. Hödur is the blind brother of Balder, who through Loki’s treachery, threw the
mistletoe branch that killed Balder. Here they are the two brothers who will inherit the
realm of the Aesir gods, after the current cycle.
38. Gimlé is a golden hall that can’t be touched by fire. That means it is an other-worldly
place, what esoteric traditions call the astral realm, where the virtuous deceased my find
themselves.
39. Some commentators believe the “mighty Lord” refers to Christ, whose teachings
started to spread in the Nordic lands around the 10th century.
40. The last three verses, from the Vaftrúdnismal, another poem of the Edda, elaborate
on the post-ragnarök world. After the sun had been devoured by a volcanic ash-cloud,
it became invisible for a time – and then reappeared, as her “daughter”, moving in the
same orbital pathway.
41. Does this perhaps refer to the spirits of whales and dolphins, “hovering over the
ocean waves”? Will humans have deeper alliances of understanding and mutual support
with them in the coming in the post-apocalyptic time?
42. The wise giant maidens remind us of the three “mighty women” who appeared in the
early part of the Völuspa.

@2020 Hemi-Sync@

16