[103]. The bower of Gerda was surrounded with fire.
[104]. May, maid.
[105]. The duties of hospitality were held so sacred amongst the northern nations, that Gerda would not refuse admittance to Skirnir, though she imagined him to be her greatest enemy.
[106]. Eagles are said to sit without moving for a long time upon some high eminence in the morning.
[107]. Perhaps alluding to the serpent of Midgard in the Icelandic Mythology.
[108]. Hrim-thursar. Hrim (Anglicè rime) was spoken with a guttural aspiration; and probably Crim-Tartary, the former seat of the Asi, was so called from its cold.
[109]. Suttungur, the son of Gilling, was a giant, and possessed the liquor of poetry, which he had gained from the dwarfs. It is related in the Edda, that the Asi and Vani, having been long at war, made peace, and spit into a vase. From this the gods formed Kuaser, a person of exceeding learning; and the dwarfs mixed his blood with honey, and so made the liquor of poetry. The Vani were a Grecian colony, and this fable seems to imply that both the learning and the poetry of the North was partly of Greek origin. Odin, under the feigned name of Bolverk, entered into the service of Bauge, brother of Suttungur, and drank up the liquor. A small quantity of it, which he spilt, was scattered amongst men. It is observable, that the name of Suttungur, from whom Odin gained this liquor, may denote that he derived his poetry from the Southern tongues.
O, it came o’er mine ear like the sweet south,
That breathes upon a bank of violets.