Norse mythology's Voluspa, part 2: what did Odin pay to hear his own doom? A few twisted gold rings and a necklace. That is the price a seeress raised by giants takes from him, and what she sells him is the death of his son, the binding of a god, and the halls where the dead are punished.

This is Episode 2 of our Poetic Edda series: Völuspá, "the seeress's prophecy", Part 2 (Bellows stanzas 27–43), told from the poem itself. We follow the gold. Each chapter is one thing Odin's payment buys: Heimdall's horn under the tree and the eye in Mimir's well, the Valkyries riding out, Baldr and the mistletoe, Loki bound with Sigyn beside him, Nastrond and the wading through venom-streams, the Ironwood, and three cocks crowing in three worlds. Between them, one question keeps coming back: "Would you know yet more?" Which myth should we tell next? Tell us in the comments.

Chapters
00:00 Rings and a necklace
01:06 The horn under the tree
02:20 The Old One at her door
03:36 The payment
05:00 Riders
05:58 The mistletoe
07:24 The one in the wet woods
08:11 The halls of the enemies
09:38 Ironwood
10:30 Three birds in three worlds

Sources
- Völuspá, in The Poetic Edda, tr. Henry Adams Bellows (American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1923), st. 27–43. Quotations verbatim, Bellows' stanza numbers; his notes paraphrased.
- Völuspá, Old Norse text, Guðni Jónsson's normalised edition (Eddukvæði), via heimskringla.no. Short phrases only; English glosses are our own literal renderings.
- The Elder Edda of Saemund Sigfusson, tr. Benjamin Thorpe (1866), st. 23.
- Snorri's Baldr and Sigyn material is mentioned only as Bellows summarises it. Part of stanza 29 is Bellows' reconstruction, and Hauksbók omits stanzas 28–34.

Watch next
- Previous: Voluspa Part 1, How the Norse World Began: https://youtu.be/U93lpTeaIe8
- Next: Voluspa Part 3, The Countdown to Ragnarok: https://youtu.be/aoSu634kVo4
- Did Odin Cause Ragnarok? https://youtu.be/l2mjQ0m95Hc
- The Poetic Edda in order (playlist): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ_gtUONdtxs
Next in the series: Völuspá III, the countdown to Ragnarok: https://youtu.be/aoSu634kVo4

Visuals are AI-generated still images (Grok Imagine): illustrative reconstructions, not historical footage. Narration: AI voice (Microsoft Edge TTS). Music: original.

#NorseMythology #PoeticEdda #Voluspa