Fritiofs Saga

56. _Valaskjalf_, a beautiful palace of Oden which was built by the gods and roofed with pure silver. In this palace is the throne Hlidskjalf. Seated there, Oden could overlook...

Stanza 1. _Hilding_ was a yeoman or bonde (see note, canto 2: 1) of Sogn in Norway and fosterfather of Fritiof and Ingeborg. In viking times the children of kings and great warr...

35. _Urdas blanka våg_. The pure water of Urda's fountain. The norns daily brought holy water out of this fountain to sprinkle the roots of the great world-tree Yggdrasil in ord...

Stanza 1. _bonde_. This term is generally translated by the word peasant. The word yeoman is often used as an equivalent term and sometimes the original Scandinavian form _bonde...

38. _Mimers evigt sorlande våg_. Mimer's ever rippling fountain. The god Mimer guarded the fountain of wisdom. Oden once pawned one of his eyes for a drink out of this fountain.

5. _bärsärk_, from _ber_, bare, and _serk_, shirt or coat of mail. The berserk was an unarmed warrior that went to battle in a frenzy and possessed with preternatural strength....

2. _Sam_ and _Hejd_ were two monsters that Helge had sent for and offered presents with the request that they raise a storm that would destroy Fritiof and his men. They appeared...

18. _Den strådöd_. For the ancient Northmen it was a great disgrace to die a natural death. Death from self-inflicted wounds was more honorable. The use of _den_ without an adje...

84. _Eriksgata_, from _edh-vreks-gata (ed-givar-gata)_, the journey of early kings to receive the homage of their subjects. Some authorities see the origin of the word in the fa...

In the first part of this canto Fritiof gives free expression to his skepticism and to his contempt for the superstition of his day. See canto VIII, lines 145, 196, 197, 255; ca...

Observe the ingenuity with which Fritiof's words to Björn are also made to convey an answer to Hilding. _Kung_ and _bonde_ refer to Helge and Fritiof, but they are also the ches...

Stanza 2. _o, den som, aldrig gungat däruppå_! Note how Fritiof has changed his mind regarding life on the sea. Contrast this with canto XII: 143 seq.; XIV: 65 seq.; XIX: 27 seq.

8. _Öder_, the faithless and restless husband of Freja. Once when he left her and remained away a long time she sought him in all lands. The tears she wept while on this sad err...

6. _I Ånger är jag uppfödd_, seq. Fritiof's dejection blinds his eyes to the happy conditions of his boyhood and youth. What he says is not true. Compare with cantos I and III.

Stansa 2. _med kappor över öga_. The falcons were trained for the hunt by starving them and keeping a hood over their eyes. This was removed just before the bird was released. I...

8. _Hagbart_, a Norse sea king, was secretly betrothed to Signe, daughter of Sigar, king of Seeland, who caused Hagbart to be captured and hanged. Signe then put fire to her cha...

2l. _i templet sätter jag min syster_. The temple of Balder is referred to. Here persons were inviolate and it was especially a great crime for a man to visit a woman in this sa...

17. _Fritiof blygs, att han darrar_, Fritiof is so ashamed that he trembles. The antecedent of _han_ may be Björn and not Fritiof, the meaning then being, that the latter is ash...

Stanza 3. _Kort är hammarens skaft hos den segrande Tor_. The handle of Tor's hammer, Mjölner, was very short; in his conflicts with the giants the god hurled it at the enemies....

20. _De bygga under tidens träd och ovanför_. This refers to the norns who dwelt at the well of Urd by the world-tree Yggdrasil. But they also determine the fate of men on earth...

14. _gjallarhorn_, the trumpet of Heimdall, the sentry of the gods. _Gjallarhornet_ can be heard to the remotest part of the world. Upon it Heimdall would blow one terrific blas...

9. _dvärgarnas dag-glans, drakarnas bädd_, gold. The dwarfs and dragons had a passionate desire for gold. _Dvärgarnas dag-glans_ is an allusion to the belief that the subterrane...