[120.] Leidre or Leire, at the end of Isefjord, in the county of Lithraborg, is considered the oldest royal seat in Denmark.
[121.] Laage is a general name for lakes and rivers. It here stands for Lake Malar, in Sweden.
[122.] The grassy isle is Seeland.
[123.] Sigtun. Sige, Ger. Sieg, (comp. Sigfrid,) means victory, and is one of Odin’s names; tun means an inclosure, and is the same word as our modern English town. Thus Sigtun would, in modern English, be called Odinstown; like our Johnstown, Williamstown, etc.
[124.] Noatun, Thrudvang, Breidablik and Himinbjorg are purely mythological names, and for their significance the reader is referred to The Fooling of Gylfe. Snorre follows the lay of Grimner in the Elder Edda.
[125.] Berserk. The etymology of this word has been much contested. Some, upon the authority of Snorre in the above quoted passage, derive it from berr (bare) and serkr (comp. sark, Scotch for shirt); but this etymology is inadmissible, because serkr is a substantive, not an adjective. Others derive it from berr (Germ. Bär = ursus), which is greatly to be preferred, for in olden ages athletes and champions used to wear hides of bears, wolves and reindeer (as skins of lions in the south), hence the names Bjalfe, Bjarnhedinn, Ulfhedinn (hedinn, pellis),—“pellibus aut parvis rhenonum tegimentis utuntur.” Cæsar, Bell. Gall. VI, 22. Even the old poets understood the name so, as may be seen in the poem of Hornklofi (beginning of the 10th century), a dialogue between a valkyrie and a raven, where the valkyrie says at berserkja reiðu vil ek þik spyrja, to which the raven replies, Ulfhednar heita, they are called wolf coats. In battle the berserks were subject to fits of frenzy, called berserksgangr (furor bersercicus), when they howled like wild beasts, foamed at the mouth, and gnawed the iron rim of their shields. During these fits they were, according to a popular belief, proof against steel and fire, and made great havoc in the ranks of the enemy. But when the fever abated they were weak and tame. Vigfusson Cleasby’s Icelandic-English Dictionary, sub voce.
[126.] In the mythology this ship belongs to Frey, having been made for him by the dwarfs.
[127.] Hugin and Munin.
[128.] The old Norse word is órlög, which is plural, (from ör = Ger. ur, and lög, laws,) and means the primal law, fate, weird, doom; the Greek μοῖρα. The idea of predestination was a salient feature in the Odinic religion. The word örlog, O.H.G. urlac, M.H.G. urlone, Dutch orlog, had special reference to a man’s fate in war. Hence Orlogschiffe in German means a naval fleet. The Danish orlog means warfare at sea.
[129.] Svithjod, which here means Sweden, is derived from Odin’s name, Svidr and thjod = folk, people. Svithjod thus means Odin’s people, and the country takes its name from the people.