Dunno, that's possible. The 'lingam and yoni', 'cup and sword' style of symbolism of procreation is widespread through many cultures.
I don't know anything about those, but there's some stuff backing it up here.
Verse 19 and 20, my translation:
Ash/Ask I know standing*
Named Slippery One**
Tall and covered with white clay***
From there comes the dew
That falls in valleys
Evergreen
Over the source of fate.
(*The word for 'standing' is standa. Stånda is the word used in modern Swedish for the erection of a penis. Could be either or, but there are other words for standing that could've been used but weren't.
** Yggdrasil = ON for Odins horse. This tends to be translated as 'gallows' because Odin hung on the tree, but it could also be Sleipnir, which means 'slippery one'.
*** The word used is 'auri', which means something like wet/damp clay, sand or soil.
As for the white dew that falls in valleys I'll leave to your imagination, dear reader.)
From there comes three maidens
Much knowing
Three from the hall under the pole
Fate is the first,
The other is Being
Cutting in boards
Debt/future is the third.
They laid laws,
They selected life,
All children
were given their fates.
It's a riddle so I could be wrong and the answer might be something entirely difference in the context of that culture, but it wouldn't be that far of a stretch. Especially considering these two poems came right after the poems describing the creation of Ask and Embla by the dwarves, who seem to represent the different aspects/limitations of humanity if this translation is to be believed:
http://freya.theladyofthelabyrinth.com/?page_id=21If so, this would simply be the continuation of humanity. In the next verse, there are new names of what I presume are humans around.)
Either way, I've got my help so it's a bit of a case closed. I'd love to keep discussing old norse poetry but it should probably go in the language boards.
