[94] Naglefare: See the Catalogue.
[95] It seems to me as if the author has taken this idea from the account given in Cook’s voyages of the women of Otaheite swimming off from the shore to the ship, to look out for lovers among the sailors.
[96] I here acknowledge a plagiarism from Dryden, in his quaint translation of the Novimus et qui te in the Third Bucolic of Virgil.
[97] Alludes to Thor and his companions’ adventure related in the Second Canto.
The metre in the original is in couplets as follows:
The metre I have adopted for the translation of this Canto is the couplet of lines of fourteen syllables occasionally interspersed with couplets of thirteen syllables. In reading the latter, a pause should be made after the seventh syllable. This metre resembles that of the original, and has much of its prosaic and familiar march. This Canto and the next are based on the chapter of the poetic Edda, called Thrymsqvida.
[98] King Hro founded the town of Roeskild, situate where Leire once stood. Roeskild is about twenty-five English miles distant W. from Copenhagen, and has a magnificent cathedral, which is the cemetery of the Danish kings.
[99] Kongebo, means royal residence or palace.
[100] Giants’ bane, in Icelandic Jótun bani, name given by the Scalds to Thor, on account of his constant enmity towards the giants.
Specimen of the metre in the original.
I have adopted for the translation of this Canto a metre, alternatively trochaic and anapestic.
[101] It was the custom, at the marriage ceremony of the ancient Scandinavians in the pagan time, for the betrothed to swear fidelity to each other, in touching the hammer of Thor. May not this account for the ceremony of marriage at Gretna-green being always performed by a blacksmith? The lowland Scots are of Scandinavian origin, and they have preserved many a custom and many a superstition of their ancestors.
[102] Respecting Hrugner and Mokkurcalf, please to consult the Alphabetical Catalogue.
The following explanation of the foregoing mythe is given by the Swedish poet Ling:
The loss of Thor’s hammer, and its remaining eight miles under ground in the hands of Thrymur the frost giant, denotes the impotence or inactivity of the electrical fluid during the eight months’ winter of the northern regions. The invitation of Thrymur to Freya typifies the struggle of nature at the approach of spring, to renew its vitality.
Stuhr’s opinion of this mythe is much the same as that of Ling. He thinks it to be a hymn in honour of spring, typified by Freya. Thor borrows Freya’s attire, i.e. in spring the electrical heat resumes its force. Thor travels with Loptur (the air) to Thrymur. They are furnished with a copious repast; i.e. at the approach of and by the influence of spring, the unfruitfulness of the earth ceases. When Asa-Lok speaks of the eight nights of longing passed by the pretended Freya, it means the progressive changes undergone by the polar atmosphere during the eight winter months, before the heat finally obtains the mastery. The immense appetite and quantity of mead drank by Thor denote the absorption of the earth’s vapours by the electrical fire of summer, and the death of Thrymur denotes the total disappearance of winter. It is scarcely necessary to remind the reader, that Miölner, the hammer of Thor, typifies, almost everywhere, thunder, or the electrical fire and its effects.
In the Greek poem of Nonnus, called the Dionysiacs, or Actions of Bacchus, we find a mythe having no doubt the same signification as that of the Thrymsqvida. Jupiter at the approach of winter loses his thunderbolts, which fall into the hands of the giant Typhon. He recovers them in spring, by means of a stratagem of Cadmus, and soon after makes use of them to discomfit and slay the giant Typhon.
In the original this Canto is written in terza rima as follows.
Besides the difficulty of the terza rima, it is a metre not very well suited to the genius of the English language. I have, therefore, given my translation of this Canto in blank verse, following the example of Carey in his version of Dante.
The subject of this Canto seems taken partly from some strophes in the Voluspâ, and partly from the Vaftrudnismal, which are the names of two of the most important chapters of the poetic Edda.
[103] Gugner, name of Odin’s lance.
This Canto does not require notes, but as it may amuse the reader to compare the history of the destruction and reproduction of the world with the account thereof given in the Edda, I here subjoin some extracts from the two chapters above mentioned, following Finn Magnussen’s translation. I think the reader will remark some resemblance between certain parts of this Canto and certain parts of the Apocalypse. The battle between Thor and the Serpent Jormundgard is not unlike the combat between the Archangel Michael and the great dragon; and the palace of Gimle, the future abode of the blessed, presents an image of the new Jerusalem.
[104] The sun is feminine in the Gothic languages.
Lok from locka (to tempt).
Hofvarpur, name of the steed of Gna, from hof (hoof), hvarpa (to throw out).
The reader, before he begins the work, is respectfully requested to correct the following
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: the errata have been corrected in this e-text.
| Page. | Line. |
| XXXVIII | 4 from bottom, for he read the. |
| XLVI | 12 from top, for threwherself read threw herself. |
| LXIII | 12 from top, for incolour read in colour. |
| 25 | 4 from top, for hem read them. |
| 36 | 5 from top, for t oads read toads. |
| 110 | 2 from top, for ofthe read of the. |
| 129 | 4 from bottom, for careerpursues read career pursues. |
| 142 | 11 from top, for owesubmission read owe submission. |
| 194 | 5 from bottom, for ts read Its. |
| 206 | 6 from bottom, after bloom insert all. |
| 259 | 11 from top, for while read white. |
| 326 | 2 from bottom, for At housand read A thousand. |