Valentine’s Day is coming up, and that gets me thinking about some of my favorite love and romance quotes from Old Norse-Icelandic literature. Would anybody like to add any others?

(all translations and normalizations my own)

“Nú em ec svá fegin fundi okkrum
sem átfrekir Óðins haukar,
er val vitu, varmar bráðir,
eða dǫgglitir dagsbrún sjá.”
|
“Now I am as glad for our meeting
as the eager  ravens of Óðinn,
who see corpses, warm flesh,
or who, wet with dew, behold the rising sun.”
(Helgakviða Hundingsbana II, st. 43)
*
“Ek sver þess við guðin, at ek skal þik eiga, eða enga konu ella.”
|
“I swear this before the gods, that I shall have you, or no woman otherwise.”
(Vǫlsunga saga)
*
|
“One night is long, two nights are long,
how can I endure three?
Often a month has seemed shorter to me
than half such a wait for a wedding.”
*
|
“All men and women are born
destined for far much to much grief;
but from Sigurðr I shall never part…”
(Helreið Brynhildar st. 14)
*
And finally, ”My love, kiss me” (Ást mín, kyss mik). One of the Bryggen runic inscriptions. Photo from Det nasjonale biblioteketet, Norway:
"My love, kiss me" (Ást mín, kyss mik). One of the Bryggen runic inscriptions.