ABSTRACT
More than any other mythological poem in the Edda, Hárbarðsljόð has been regarded as problematic in a number of respects. Metrically it ranges through fornyrðislag, ljόðaháttr, galdralag, and sections in what seems to be prose; formally, it consists of a series of apparently unmotivated insults, boasts, threats and untruths exchanged between Óðinn and Þόrr. Þόrr has come to a fjord and wants to cross; Óðinn, calling himself Hárbarðr, has the ferryboat on the other side and refuses him passage. Þόrr apparently initiates the exchange of insults, but Óðinn emerges as the winner and Þόrr has to find another way around the watery obstacle. Such hostility between the two gods is not evidenced elsewhere, while many of the incidents mentioned during the course of the poem have no parallels in the rest of the mythological corpus. Scholars in the early part of the century sought to emend or excise the problematic verses, but in recent years critics have endeavoured to provide various explanations for the difficulties the poem offers.
