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1147patterns, assonance, and certain metrical variations to create tension, evoke mood, and advance and retard the flow of the narrative. Like all poetry, Vǫluspá does things that are independent of what it means: its effects and affects transcend its intentions. And Vǫluspá does not mean to be understood without a struggle. Its mysteriousness is a carefully wrought artifice, part of the story-outside-a-story of the encounter between the omnipotent seeress and the knowledge-hungry god. The vǫlva frequently teasesÓðinn with the question vituð er enn, eða hvat?-"do you know (enough) yet, or what?" The answer is always an implied "no"-for him and for modern scholars. There will always be more to Vǫluspá than any context we construct for it.