NOTES TO THE TWENTY-FOURTH CANTO.
This Canto in the original is written in the classic hexameter.
Specimen.
Da nu Skirni̱r blev vaer den ovladtsölverne Laage,
Hvor med kulsort Glands ham en Broes glatdannede Steenkul
Veien viste; da gik han derind; og brat han befandt sig
Atter i fri Luft. Himlen var blaa med utallige Stierner, etc.
I have chosen for my translation our heroic couplet.
[89] The poet, in this line, alludes no doubt to the unclean food often used by the inhabitants of Finmark.
[90] This part of Gerda’s speech reminds me of the discourse of the beautiful Marcela, in the XIV chapter, 2d book, part 1st of Don Quixote.
In this Canto the poet has diverged considerably from the chapter in the poetic Edda, called the Skirnisfor, which treats of the same subject. In Œhlenschläger’s poem, as has been seen, Skirnir makes use of the most gentle and insinuating means of persuasion to induce Gerda to give ear to his proposal; and the stratagem of Frey’s likeness conveyed from the brook into Gerda’s basin is entirely the poet’s own concetto, and it is, I think, a very ingenious one: whereas, in the Edda, Skirnir makes use of the most terrible threats and sinister predictions, in order to force Gerda to accede to his master’s wishes; and at length he succeeds in terrifying her into submission: among other threats, which are not of the most decent nature, he tells her that she shall either be wedded to a frightful three-headed Goblin of the Hrimthussar race, or pine a maid, tormented with the most violent desires, which cannot be gratified.