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 warriors were often entrusted to the care of less influential and less wealthy friends to be trained by them, thus removing the young from the temptations and disturbing influences of court life and warfare. This practice would also remove them from the danger of being pampered by fond parents or sycophantic servants.
1. Ej Norden förr sett två så sköna. The auxiliary har is omitted. Such omissions are common in subordinate clauses and in poetry.
6. Såg. Subjunctive past, regular form såge.
6. i Frejas Hus. Freja, or Fröja, wife of Öder, was the goddess of beauty and love. In her abode, Folkvang, were gathered all the lovers who had been faithful to each other unto death.
7. älvkungen. Älvor or alfer were ethereal beings of great beauty and with voices that had the clearness of silver. During moonlight nights especially they danced in dales and groves. Ljusalfer, light elves, personified the benign influences in nature, especially as they manifest themselves in the realms of light and air. Svartalfer, black elves, lived in the earth and personified the silent forces that operate beneath its surface. They are perhaps identical with the dwarfs. The elves are here thought of as having kings and queens just as human beings.
8. En Kung var ej som han i ära. A king was not honored as he.
8. runan. The runes were the characters of the early alphabet of the Germans, Anglo-Saxons, and Scandinavians. Runic inscriptions were generally cut into wood, bone or rock.
9. fick han Ingborg lära. Fick may mean either that he was permitted to teach Ingeborg or that he must do it because of an irresistible desire to do so.
10. båd', både.
12. Det första ax, vars guld blev moget. A striking metaphor meaning "the first head of grain that ripened and assumed a golden color."