me, dew has drenched me, I have long been dead.”  He gives the name Wegtam, or Way-wise, and then follow question and answer until she discovers his identity and will say no more.  In Voeluspa there is no descriptive introduction, and no dialogue; the whole is spoken by the Sibyl, who plunges at once into her story, with only the explanatory words:  “Thou, Valfather, wouldst have me tell the ancient histories of men as far as I remember.”  She describes the creation of the world and sky by Bor’s sons; the building by the Gods of a citadel in Ida-plain, and their age of innocence till three giant-maids brought greed of gold; the creation of the dwarfs; the creation of the first man and woman out of two trees by Odin, Hoeni and Lodur; the world-ash and the spring beside it where dwell the three Norns who order the fates of men.  Then follows an allusion to the war between the Aesir and the Vanir, the battle with the giants who had got possession of the goddess Freyja, and the breaking of bargains; an obscure reference to Mimi’s spring where Odin left his eye as a pledge; and an enumeration of his war-maids or Valkyries.  Turning to the future, the Sibyl prophesies the death of Baldr, the vengeance on his slayer, and the chaining of Loki, the doom of the Gods and the destruction of the world at the coming of the fire-giants and the release of Loki’s children from captivity.  The rest of the poem seems to be later; it tells how the earth shall rise again from the deep, and the Aesir dwell once more in Odin’s halls, and there is a suggestion of Christian influence in it which is absent from the earlier part.

Of the other general poems, the next four were probably composed before 950; in each the setting is different. Vafthrudnismal, a riddle-poem, shows Odin in a favourite position, seeking in disguise for knowledge of the future.  Under the name of Gangrad (Wanderer), he visits the wise giant Vafthrudni, and the two agree to test their wisdom:  the one who fails to answer a question is to forfeit his head.  In each case the questions deal first with the past.  Vafthrudni asks about Day and Night, and the river which divides the Giants from the Gods, matters of common knowledge; and then puts a question as to the future:  “What is the plain where Surt and the blessed Gods shall meet in battle?” Odin replies, and proceeds to question in his turn; first about the creation of Earth and Sky, the origin of Sun and Moon, Winter and Summer, the Giants and the Winds; the coming of Njoerd the Wane to the Aesir as a hostage; the Einherjar, or chosen warriors of Valhalla.  Then come prophetic questions on the destruction of the Sun by the wolf Fenri, the Gods who shall rule in the new world after Ragnaroek, the end of Odin.  The poem is brought to a close by Odin’s putting the question which only himself can answer:  “What did Odin say in his son’s ear before he mounted the pyre?” and the giant’s head is forfeit.