Chapter 9

Stanza 1. _tänk på_, think of.

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 in the guise of polar bear and eagle.

2. _gudars hem_, the heavens.

3. _Solundar-ö_, an island near the Norwegian coast, probably at the outlet of Sognefjord. Today the group is called the Outer and the Inner Sol Islands.

4. _gudatimrade_, built by the gods. See note, canto 3: 164 seq.

5. _kan du icke se för natt_, could not see because of the darkness.

5. _dra seglaren i kvav_. Drag the sailor into the deep. _Gå i kvav_, to founder, go down.

5. _Ran(a)_, wife of Ägir and goddess of the sea, was hostile to men and sought to drag them down into the deep. She was passionately fond of gold, and sailors deemed it wise to have some of the yellow metal with them with which to appease her in case they foundered at sea. (See stanza 6.)

5. _åt oss_, for us.

6. _fästa havsbrud_, plight troth with the goddess of the sea.

7. _kvad den_, called it forth by incantation.

8. _skepna'n_, skepnaden.

8. _är du gudars dotter_. See canto III: 164 seq.

9. _hålla sjön_, keep afloat.

10. _Efjesund_, a sound in the Orkney Islands. Angantyr was jarl of the Orkneys.

11. _havets mör_, the waves, nine beautiful daughters of Ägir and Ran who delighted in playing all over the surface of their father's vast domain.

11. _mjödhorn vandrande på guldfot_. The drinking horns of the ancients often had metal supports.