Says, "Bonny boy, tell to me
Who lives into yon bigly bow'r,
Stands by yon green oak-tree?"
4.[°] Arngrim and the Earl's lady, etc. So Svabo. In Hammershaimb's version (Antiq. Tídss. 1849-1851) she is described as the daughter of Angantyr.
7.[°] Better than fighting, etc. The incident of a boy playing too roughly with his companions and being told by them to go and avenge his father instead of maltreating them is very widespread. Prof. Ker notes its occurrence (On the History of the Ballads 1100-1500, p. 194) in the Irish Romance of Maelduin, in four Norwegian, five Faroese, two or three Danish ballads, in a Literary History of the Arabs and in New Guinea.
8.[°] Water she cast, etc. The passage is obscure. It is not clear if Hervik had actually been fighting with the 'lads,' so that the cleansing of her armour was an actual necessity; or if she had only been playing rather roughly. Leika can mean both 'to play' and 'to fight'; and leikvöllr may mean both a 'playground' and a 'battlefield.' If Hervik had only been playing, the throwing of the water on the armour was possibly a rite performed before undertaking vengeance.