Da kom han til Troldkaemveland.
Det var som Vinden, Vei̱en over:
Den i̱ngen Bom kan byde Stöv;
Det var som Blaest paa Havets Vover,
Der kruser Bölgens sorte Top.
In the metre I have adopted for this Canto, I have introduced occasionally anapests, for the sake of greater variety.
In this Canto the poet has diverged considerably from either Edda, and has boldly and felicitously sketched a plan of his own, into which, however, he has interwoven ideas taken from three different Cantos of the poetic Edda: viz Harbard’s song; Alvismal (discourse of Alvis); Skirnisfor (journey of Skirnir). In the first, Harbard’s song, it is Thor, and not Skirnir, who enters into a dialogue with Harbard, whom he meets at the fiord. In the second, Alvismal, the subject of the Canto is a dialogue between Thor and the dwarf Alvis (all-wise), wherein the latter makes a pompous display of his learning, by giving definitions and synonymes of earth, heaven, wind, fire, nearly in the same manner that Skirnir does in this Canto. In the third, Skirnir’s journey, wherein Skirnir is sent by Frey to propose marriage to Gerda, are mentioned the ferocious dogs which guard the dwelling of giant Gymer, the father of Gerda.
[81] Fiord means a creek or arm of the sea running inland; on the coast of Norway the fiords run for a very considerable distance inland; and thus flowing from the sea at the high tide form a contrast with the course of the rivers.
[82] The word shoeless foot, in the original nœgne Fod, seems borrowed from the speech of Harbard to Thor, in Harbard’s song in the poetic Edda, wherein he says,