[10]. Fifteen: until early in the eleventh century a Norwegian or Icelandic boy became “of age” at twelve, and Maurer cites this passage as added proof of the poem’s lateness. Hunding: the annotator (introductory prose to Helgakvitha Hundingsbana II) calls him king of Hundland, which shows no great originality. Saxo mentions a Hunding who was a Saxon king ruling in Jutland, probably the origin of Helgi’s traditional foe.
[12]. Storm, etc.: war.
[13]. Logafjoll (“Flame-Mountain”): a mythical name. Frothi: [[295]]a: traditional king of Denmark, whose peaceful reign was so famous that “Frothi’s peace” became a by-word for peace of any kind. Vithrir’s hounds: wolves; Vithrir is Othin, and his hounds are the wolves Freki and Geri.
[14]. In this poem Helgi kills all the sons of Hunding, but in the poems of the Sigurth cycle, and the prose notes attached thereto, Sigmund and his father-in-law, Eylimi, are killed by Hunding’s sons, on whom Sigurth subsequently takes vengeance (cf. Fra Dautha Sinfjotla and Regïnsmol).
[15]. No gap indicated in the manuscript, but almost certainly something has been lost mentioning more specifically the coming of the Valkyries. The lightning which accompanies them suggests again their identification with the clouds (cf. Helgakvitha Hjorvarthssonar, 28).
[16]. Some editions fill out the first line: “He saw there mighty maidens riding.” The manuscript indicates line 4 as the beginning of a new stanza. [[296]]
[17]. Wolf-wood: dark forest; the original word is not altogether clear. Southern: this variety of Valkyrie, like the swan-maidens of the Völundarkvitha, was clearly regarded as of southern (i.e., German) origin. Here again there is a confusion of traditions; the Valkyries of the Voluspo were as essentially Norse as any part of the older mythology. I doubt if a poet much earlier than the author of the first Helgi Hundingsbane lay would have made his Sigrun, daughter of Hogni, a Valkyrie. It is to be noted that the same complication appears in the Sigurth story, where the undoubted Valkyrie, Brynhild-Sigrdrifa (the latter name is really only an epithet) is hopelessly mixed up with the quite human Brynhild, daughter of Buthli.
[18]. Breaker of rings: generous prince, because the breaking of rings was the customary form of distributing gold.
[19]. Granmar: the annotator gives an account of him and his family in the prose following stanza 12 of Helgakvitha Hundingsbana II.
[20]. No gap indicated in the manuscript; some editors combine the stanza with the fragmentary stanza 21, and others fill in with “And home will carry | Hogni’s daughter.” [[297]]