NOTES TO THE FIFTH CANTO.
Specimen of the original.
Da ved de brede Borde
De Kaemper rundt nu sad,
Tog Loke snilt ti̱l Orde,
Den muntre Usa glad, etc.
[29] Who this Goblin turns out to be, is explained in the next Canto.
[30] Little Thumb; so I translate Tommeliden, the name of Utgard-Lok’s racer; who he, the drinking-horn presented to Thor, the cat, and the old woman turn out be, all this is explained in the next Canto.
[31] I do not find in the Edda any mention of this feat; it is probably the poet’s own invention, and meant as a pendant to the episode of Mars and Venus.
[32] Let no one be astonished, that the car of the goddess of love should be drawn by cats. Cats are the most ardent and persevering of lovers. The celebrated Spanish poet Lope de Vega has said of them,
Los gatos en efeto
Son del amor el indice perfeto.
and in another place,
Que cosa puede haber con que se iguale
La paciencia de un gato enamorado?
[33] This combat between Thor and the giantesses on the rocky isle is alluded to in the elder or poetic Edda, in the chapter called “Harbard’s song.” Harbard makes Thor the following reproach, when the latter tells him that he had beaten and put to flight the giantesses on the isle of Hlesey:
Shamefully didst thou act, O Thor!
When thou didst beat women.
Thor answers:
They were not women;
They were she-wolves;
They attacked me with iron clubs.
The meaning of this, according to Finn Magnussen, is, that the noxious vapours and tempest on Hlesey were dispersed by a thunderstorm; and the iron clubs denote hailstones.
[34] The apple of Iduna. See the Catalogue.