Beyla

by Seawalker

BeylaThorskeggaHer dress the color of the rising Sun

And floating round her round and

Buxom body, the dairymaid swings

The pail from her hand, the milk

Quick from the teat, rattles and splashes,

The gift of each spotted cow. She sings

Like a laughing gnomelike pumpkin

And the swarm comes, one by one.

They dip and kiss her sunrise hair

And lay their nectar on the elf-woman’s

Tongue, in trade for her singing.

She whispers to each of them, scolds,

Encourages, asks of sisters and aunts

And the poor doomed brothers, asks

Of babies plump and pampered

In the tiny rounded rooms. Make sweetness,

Little sisters, make sweetness for our master

Who must spread joy and harmony over

Nine great worlds. Mead for his table,

Gold for his bread, he gives so much

And deserves all we can give him. Fly home,

Little sisters, and brew for a hundred days.

Her whisper carries through the flowers

That nod in the wind, the blossoms on

The crabapple tree that bloomed when

He was born, the gorse-weed and the heather.

She will have his table set with the best,

And her husband’s best bread too. None shall see

Meagerness in the Golden Lord’s halls,

Wherever those halls may lie. To Alfheim,

To green Vanaheim, to high blue Asgard, there are

Everywhere the frantic, buzzing hives,

Yielding to the charms of elven wives,

The joyous gift of a thousand tiny lives.

 

Artwork by Thorskegga Thorn. She writes, "Beyla is one of the two servants of Frey ... Thorshof members regard Beyla as the bee goddess, with influence over sweetness (the culinary variety), mead, and wisdom."