A quiet notice V2Melody closes at midnight on , Spanish time.

Closes

A note from Richard

V2Melody will close at midnight on 20 January 2028

This site has been a retirement project in musical poetry: poems chosen with care and set to music, offered freely for as long as it felt right to keep the garden open.

The work no longer holds the place it once did in my life. I have gone as far with it as I wish to go. Like a sand mandala, it was made to be completed and then released. I am not attached to its permanence, and I do not believe any of it needs to last beyond the time it was given. The poems were already here before I arrived and began to experiment with them. They will still be here when these musical experiments, and indeed myself, have been swept away, like the sand of a mandala. Nothing has been lost.

I want a simpler end to my life, days of simple love and enjoyment with my wonderful wife of 20 years. The work of maintaining a server, the monitoring, and the residual obligations that come with keeping a site alive no longer fit that life.

From 4 November 2026 I will not be adding new poems or musical poems to the site.

The experimental music I am making now is on my Suno profile. Those pieces stay there, and are not added to this site.

Until midnight on 20 January 2028, Spanish time, everything remains available exactly as it is. That is when my VPS server contract comes to an end, and it will not be renewed. After that, the server will be switched off and the site will disappear.

The Mandala Is Finished explains this more fully.

Thank you to anyone who found a poem, a track, or a quiet moment here.

The pleasure was in the making.

Richard



Andvari

Mythology
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A dwarf who possessed a vast hoard of gold, including a cursed ring, later stolen by Loki.

Detailed Definition
Andvari’s treasure, especially the ring Andvaranaut, becomes the source of a curse that brings doom to gods and mortals alike. His story is central to the Völsunga saga. In poetry, Andvari represents greed, fate, and the corrupting power of wealth, themes recurrent in eddic and skaldic verse.
Example
Example in poetry:
In a poem on cursed gold, “Andvari’s ring gleams, but its glow is grief’s mask”; A poet might lament, “Like Andvari stripped of his hoard, I guard dreams the gods deem theirs to steal”; Contemporary verse could warn, “Beware the gold that once bore Andvari’s sigh—it buys kingdoms but drowns heirs”; A line from a ballad: “Loki took Andvari’s wealth, and with it, wove doom into every thread of glory”.
Additional Notes
Andvari is central to the Völsunga saga and the Poetic Edda’s Reginsmál. His cursed ring, Andvaranaut, initiates a chain of tragic events culminating in Sigurd’s death and the fall of dynasties. The curse ("all who possess it shall know sorrow") exemplifies the Norse theme of wealth as both gift and doom. In poetry, Andvari symbolizes greed, the inescapability of fate, and the moral corruption of power. His transformation into a pike to guard his hoard adds a layer of liminality—useful for poets exploring themes of concealment, metamorphosis, or the primal origins of treasure.
Also Known As
Andvari the Dwarf
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