Steinrvala

by Edmund Ealdredsson
The First Draft of The First Stanza of The Uncompleted Steinrvala (A Mythical Telling of the Birth of the Noble Steinr People Of The Nation Of Wintermark)

Scribed By Edmund Ealdredsson Of Sigehold And Donated By His Brother Æthelric.

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The Star who Fell

IN ancient times, a maiden,

Beauteous Daughter of the World,

Passed for ages her existence

In the great expanse of existence,

O'er the prairies yet enfolded.

Wearisome the maiden growing,

Her existence sad and hopeless,

Thus alone to live for her time

In the infinite expanses

Of the air above the sea-foam,

In the far outstretching spaces,

In a solitude of ether,

She descended to the ocean,

Waves her coach, and waves her pillow.

Thereupon the rising storm-wind

Flying from the East in fierceness,

Whips the ocean into surges,

Strikes her sisters with sprays of ocean

Till the waves are white with fervour.

To and fro they toss the maiden,

Storm-encircled, hapless maiden;

With her sport the rolling billows,

With her play the storm-wind forces,

On the blue back of the waters;

On the white-wreathed waves of ocean,

Play the forces of the salt-sea,

With the lone and helpless maiden;

Till at last in full conception,

Union now of force and beauty,

Sink the storm-winds into slumber;

Overburdened now the maiden

Cannot rise above the surface;

Seven hundred years she wandered,

Ages nine of man's existence,

Swam the ocean hither, thither,

Could not rise above the waters,

Conscious only of her travail;

Seven hundred years she laboured

Ere her first-born was delivered.

Thus she swam as water-mother,

Toward the east, and also southward,

Toward the west, and also northward;

Swam the sea in all directions,

Frightened at the strife of storm-winds,

Swam in travail, swam unceasing,

Ere her first-born was delivered.