Hárbarðsljóð[1] (Old Norse: 'The Lay of Hárbarðr')[2] is one of the poems of thePoetic Edda, found in theCodex Regius andAM 748 I 4to manuscripts. It is aflyting poem with figures fromNorse Paganism.Hárbarðsljóð was first written down in the late 13th century but may have had an older history as an oral poem.[3]
In this poem, the ferryman Harbard and the godThor compete in a flyting or verbal contest with one other. The ferryman Hárbarðr (Greybeard) is rude and obnoxious towards Thor who is returning toAsgard after a journey inJötunheimr, the land of thejötnar. Hárbarðr obstructs his way and refuses him passage across a swollen river. He begins by saying that Thor dresses poorly (in a beggars clothes, without pants) and that his mother is dead. In the course of the poem, Harbard boasts of his sexual prowess, his magical and tactical abilities, asking Thor about his. Thor responds, telling how he defeated Giants. Ultimately, after mocking him at length, Harbard curses Thor and tells him to walk around.
The poem is significantly less structured than most Eddic poems, and is predominantly written in a metric form known asmálaháttr or "conversational style." However, other metrical forms are also to be discerned, while some of the text is pure prose. In the last decade, several scholars have concluded that the poem is an intentionally stylized version of the traditional flyting structure.
Some early commentators, such as F. W. Bergmann andViktor Rydberg argued that Hárbarð was in factLoki. Although the name Hárbarð means "Grey beard," in the opening exchange of insults Thor addresses the ferryman as one would speak to a youthful servant. Some believe that Hárbarðr's confessed exploits also are allegedly more akin to those of Loki thanOdin.[4] However, Hárbarðr repeatedly boasts of his conquests of giantesses, as does Odin inHavamal. Loki inLokasenna and Hárbarð inHárbarðsljóð both accuse Thor's wifeSif ofadultery, a charge that is never denied and may have been commonly known. They also speak identical half-lines, accusing Thor of being unmanly. Despite these arguments, this theory was rejected by later scholars such asFinnur Jónsson, Fredrick Sander, andFelix Niedner, in favor of identifying Hárbarð with Odin, based, among other things, on Odin's statement inGrimnismál 47 that Hárbarð is one of his by-names.[5]
