Earth, the creation of the gods, their quarrel with the Vanas, the occupations of the heroes in Valhalla, the…
- Date of account
- Ancient and medieval traditions presented in 1909
- Source
- Myths of the Norsemen: From the Eddas and Sagas
- Reference
- Myths of the Norsemen: From the Eddas and Sagas · selected passage 19
- Rights
- public_domain
- Language
- English retelling from Eddic and saga sources
- Translation
- H. A. Guerber
- Record updated
- 2026-08-24
Record summary
earth, the creation of the gods, their quarrel with the Vanas, the occupations of the heroes in Valhalla, the offices of the Norns, and the rulers who were to replace the Æsir when they had all perished with the world they had created
Published source text
Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.
Source passage
Source text · mention onlyearth, the creation of the gods, their quarrel with the Vanas, the occupations of the heroes in Valhalla, the offices of the Norns, and the rulers who were to replace the Æsir when they had all perished with the world they had created. But when, in conclusion, Odin bent near the giant and softly inquired what words Allfather whispered to his dead son Balder as he lay upon his funeral pyre, Vafthrudnir suddenly recognised his divine visitor. Starting back in dismay, he declared that no one but Odin himself could answer that question, and that it was now quite plain to him that he had madly striven in a contest of wisdom and wit with the king of the gods, and fully deserved the penalty of failure, the loss of his head.
Historical context
Contextual commentary · mention onlyThis is a passage from a historical religious or interpretive text. Its genre, manuscript history, translation and place within its own tradition are part of the evidence and must remain visible.
Modern context
Contextual commentary · mention onlyLattice can compare the passage's descriptive features with later reports, but resemblance does not turn a vision, angel, mythic creature or sacred narrative into a modern incident report.
Investigate related details with Anomaly Graph’s account-based search, or read how matching and provenance work.