25-30. A renunciation of the ascetic and religious ideals supposed to go with the friar's garb.
51. kåpans musselskal, reference to the shells with which the cloak of the friar Hans Alienus was ornamented. He is represented as a carver of mother of pearl and other ornaments from shells.
103. ni nå for I nån (ni, second person sg., in polite address; nå, first or third person pl.), a colloquialism peculiar to the most recent writers, here followed shortly (line 107) by the regular form kallen I, where consistency would have required kalla ni.
120. vinkande refers to frukter, hence: fruits that beckon and stir a desire in my blood.
ÅKALLAN OCH LÖFTE.
The title has reference to an ancient Norse custom of invoking the gods when making solemn promise to achieve some great deed. Such promises, usually made at public feasts, were solemnized with the draining of the beaker of Brage (ON bragafull), in honor of the god of poetry and eloquence. It will be noticed that the poem in its entirety is an invocation and an invective, the pledge being a negligible element slightly traceable only in the first stanza. This poem closes a collection of poems under the general title, "Ett folk".
17. Det är bättre (att) av en hämnare nås.
ERIK AXEL KARLFELDT.
INTET ÄR SOM VÄNTANSTIDER.
This little poem holds a place alongside of Fröding's Vallarelåt as one of the sweetest lyrics of recent Swedish verse. Each writer has evinced, in his own way, a mastery of diction rarely equaled. Karlfeldt excels in the subtly sentimental strain.