Hyndluljóð (Old Norse: 'The Lay of Hyndla')[1] is anOld Norse poem often considered a part of thePoetic Edda. It is preserved in its entirety only inFlateyjarbók, but some stanzas are also quoted in theProse Edda, where they are said to come fromVöluspá hin skamma.
Hyndluljóð is believed to be a relatively late Eddic poem, dating to the second half of the 12th century or later,[2] although including much older traditions, such as that of the 4th c. Gothic kingErmanaric.
In the poem, the goddessFreyja meets thevölvaHyndla and they ride together towardsValhalla. Freyja rides on her boarHildisvíni and Hyndla on a wolf. Their mission is to find out thepedigree ofÓttarr so that he can touch his inheritance, and the lay consists mostly of Hyndla reciting a number of names from Óttarr's ancestry.
Because of the reference in theProse Edda toVöluspá hin skamma, sinceSophus Bugge's first edition of the Eddic poems, stanzas 29–44 ofHyndluljóð as it appears in the manuscript have usually been excerpted as a separate poem under that title. Refrains have led to the suggestion that they were alternative names for the same poem.[3]
Media related toHyndluljóð at Wikimedia Commons