Strophe 1. The deceitful Loke encourages Thor to go from home and visit Geirrod, "the master of the temple of the steep altars." The great liar assures him that green paths would take him to Geirrod's halls, that is to say, they were accessible to travellers on foot, and not obstructed by rivers.
Note.—For Thor himself the condition of the roads might be of less importance. He who wades across the Elivagar rivers and subterranean streams did not need to be very anxious about finding water-courses crossing his paths. But from the continuation of the poem we learn that this expedition to Jotunheim was not a visit as a guest, or a meeting to fight a duel, as when Thor went to find Hrungner, but this time he is to press into Jotunheim with a whole army, and thus the character of the road he was to travel was of some importance. The ambush laid in his way does not concern Thor himself, but the giant-foes who constitute his army. If the latter perish in the ambush, then Geirrod and his giants will have Thor alone to fight against, and may then have some hope of victory.
Strophe 2. Thor did not require much urging to undertake the expedition. He leaves Asgard to visit Jotunheim. Of what happened on the way between Asgard and the Elivagar rivers, before Thor penetrated into Jotunheim, the strophe says:
| thá er gjardvenjodr | When the belt-wearer (Thor the possessor of the belt of strength) |
| endr (= iterum, rursus) | now, as on former occasions, |
| ríkri Idja Gandvikr-setrs skotum | strengthened by the men of Ide's chalet situated near Gandvik, |
| gördist frá thridia til Ymsa kindar, | was on his way from Odin to Ymse's (Ymer's) race, |
| fystust their (Cod. Worm.) fýrstuz (Cod. Reg.) | it was to them (to Thor and to the men of Ide's chalet) a joy (or they rushed thither) |
| at thrysta thorns nidjum | to conquer Thorn's (Bolthorn-Ymer's) kinsmen. |
Note.—The common understanding of this passage is (1) that endr has nothing to do with the contents, but is a complementary word which may be translated with "once upon a time," a part which endr has to play only too often in the interpretation of the old poems; (2) that Ide is merely a general giant name, applicable, like every other giant name, in a paraphrase Idja setr, which is supposed to mean Jotunheim; (3) that rikri Idja setrs skotum or rikri Gandvikr skotum was to give the hearers or readers of Thorsdrapa the (utterly unnecessary) information that Thor was stronger than the giants; and (4) that they who longed to subdue Ymer's kinsmen were Thor and Loke—the same Loke who, in secret understanding with the giant-chief and with one of his daughters (see below), has the purpose of enticing Thor and his companions in arms into a trap!
Rikri ... skotum is to be regarded as an elliptical sentence in which the instrumental preposition, as is often the case, is to be understood. When Thor came from Asgard to the chalet of Ide, situated near Gandvik, he there gets companions in arms, and through them he becomes rikri, through them he gets an addition to his own powers in the impending conflicts. The fact that when Thor invades Jotunheim he is at the head of an army is perfectly evident from certain expressions in the poem, and from the poem as a whole. Whence could all these warriors come all of a sudden? They are not dwellers in Asgard, and he has not brought them with him in his lightning chariot. They live near Gandvik, which means "the magic bay," the Elivagar. Gandvik was a purely mythological-geographical name before it became the name of the White Sea in a late Christian time, when the sea between Greenland and America got the mythic name Ginungagap. Their being the inhabitants on the coast of a bay gives the author of Thorsdrapa an occasion further on to designate them as vikings, bayings. We have already seen that it is a day's journey between Asgard and the Elivagar (see No. 108), and that on the southern coast Thor has an inn, where he stops, and where his precious team and chariot are taken care of while he makes expeditions into Jotunheim. The continuation of the poem shows that this time, too, he stopped at this inn, and that he got his warriors there. Now, as always before, he proceeds on foot, after having reached Jotunheim.
Strophe 3 first makes a mythic chronological statement, namely, that the daughter of Geirrod, "skilled in magic," had come to an understanding with Loke, before Rogner became the ally of the latter. This mythic chronological statement shows (1) that there was a time when Rogner did not share Loke's plans, which were inimical to the gods; (2) that the events recounted in Thorsdrapa took place before Rogner became a foe of the gods. Why Thorsdrapa thinks it necessary to give this information becomes apparent already in the fourth strophe.
Then the departure from Ide's chalet is mentioned. The host hostile to the giants proceeds to Jotunheim, but before it gets thither it must traverse an intermediate region which is called Endil's meadow.
We might expect that instead of speaking of a meadow as the boundary territory which had to be traversed before getting into Jotunheim, the poem would have spoken of the body of water behind which Jotunheim lies, and mentioned it by one of its names—Elivagar, Gandvik, or Hraun. But on a more careful examination it appears that Endil's meadow is only a paraphrase for a body of water. The proof of this is found in the fact that "Endil's skees," Endils andrar, Endils itrskid, is a common paraphrase for ship. So is Endils eykr, "Endil's horse." The meadow which Endil crosses on such skees and on such a horse must therefore be a body of water. And no other water can be meant than that which lies between Endil's chalet and Jotunheim, that is, Elivagar, Gandvik.