Burned Three Times

22 She remembers the first war in the world,
when they stuck Gullveig with spears
and in the High-One’s hall they burned her;
three times they burned her, three times she was reborn,
over and over, yet she lives still.

23 Bright One they called her, wherever she came to houses,
the seer with pleasing prophecies, she practised spirit-magic;
she knew seid, seid she performed as she liked,
she was always a wicked woman’s favourite.

24 Then all the Powers went to the thrones of fate,
the sacrosanct gods, and considered this:
whether the Æsir should yield the tribute
or whether all the gods should share sacrificial feasts.


- Poetic Edda, Völuspá