Ursula Dronke points to extensive wordplay on all the meanings of the noun gildi and the adjective gildr to signal the core issue of whether the Æsir will surrender their monopoly on human tribute and join with the "all-too-popular" Vanir as their only alternative, they attack again. However, the reference to "all the gods" could, in Lindow's view, indicate a movement towards a community involving both the Æsir and the Vanir. Stanza 23 relates a difficulty in reaching a truce which led to the all-out war described in stanza 24. These stanzas are unclear, particularly the second half of stanza 23, but the battle appears to have been precipitated by the entry of Gullveig/Heiðr among the Æsir. She says: Odin shot a spear, hurled it over the host that was still the first war in the world, the defense wall was broken of the Æsir's stronghold the Vanir, indomitable, were trampling the plain. Further in the poem, a stanza provides the last of the völva's account of the events surrounding the war. In a later stanza, the völva then tells Óðinn that all the powers went to the judgment seats and discussed whether the Æsir should pay a fine or if all of the gods should instead have tribute. Heiðr performed seiðr where she could, did so in a trance, and was "always the favorite of wicked women." In the later stanza, the völva says that they called Gullveig Heiðr (meaning "Bright One" or potentially "Gleaming" or "Honor" ) whenever she came to houses, that she was a wise völva, and that she cast spells. In the first of the two stanzas, the völva says that she remembers the first war in the world, when Gullveig was stabbed with spears and then burnt three times in one of Óðinn's halls, yet that Gullveig was reborn three times. In two stanzas of Völuspá, the war is recounted by a völva (who refers to herself here in the third person) while the god Óðinn questions her. "The Æsir Against the Vanir" (1882) by Karl Ehrenberg.
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