Note 1—Thor (Thr. l, l).

Thor has a car drawn by two goats called Tanngníost and Tanngrisnir. From his driving about in this car he is called Auku-Thor (Charioteer Thor). He likewise possesses three very precious things. The first is a mallet called Mjölner (the mauler), which both the frost and mountain giants know to their cost when they see it hurled against them in the air; and no wonder, for it has split many a skull of their fathers and kindred. The second rare thing he possesses is called Megingjardir (belt of might). When he girds it about him his divine might is doubly augmented; the third, also very precious, being his iron gauntlet, which he is obliged to put on whenever he would lay hold of the handle of his mallet. There is no one so wise as to be able to relate all Thor's marvellous exploits, yet I could tell thee so many myself, that hours would be whiled away ere all that I know had been recounted. (Prose Edda, cap. 21. Mallet's Translation.)

Note II.—Jörd (Thr. 1, 4).

Jörd (Earth) is Odin's daughter and his wife, and with her he had his first-born son, Asa-Thor, who is endowed with strength and valour, and therefore quelleth he everything that hath life, (Ib., Cap. 9.) She is reckoned among the Asynior. (Ib., Cap. 36.)

Note III.—(Thr. 2, 1).

Note IV.—(Thr. 2, 2).

Note V.—Loki (Thr. 2, 2).

There is another god reckoned in the number of the Æsir whom some call the calumniator of the gods, the contriver of all fraud and mischief, and the disgrace of gods and men. His name is Loki or Loptur. He is the son of the giant Farbauti; his mother is Laufey or Nál; his brothers are Byleist and Helblendi. Loki is handsome and well-made, but of a very fickle mood and most cunning disposition. He surpasses all beings in these arts called Cunning and Perfidy. Many a time has he exposed the gods to very great perils, and often extricated them again by his artifices. (Prose Edda, cap. 33.) Loki having exasperated the gods by causing the death of Baldur (P. E., 49), they seized and confined him in a cavern with "a serpent suspended over him in such a manner that the venom should fall on his face, drop by drop; but Siguna his wife stands by him, and receives the drops as they fall in a cup, which she empties as often as it is filled. But while she is doing this, venom falls upon Loki, which makes him howl with horror, and twist his body about so violently that the whole earth shakes; and this produces what men call earthquakes." There will Loki lie till Ragnarök—the twilight of the gods. (Prose Edda, cap. 50.)

Note VI—Freyja (Thr. 3, 1).

Freyja is ranked next to Frigga, wife of Odin. She is wedded to one called Odur, and their daughter, named Hnossa, is so very handsome that whatever is beautiful and precious is called by her name. But Odur left his wife, in order to travel into far countries. Since that time Freyja continually weeps, and her tears are drops of pure gold. She has a great variety of names; for, having gone over many countries in search of her husband, each people gave her a different name. She is thus called Mardöll (Sea-Nymph), Horn, Gefn (The Bountiful Giver), Syr, and also Vanadis. She possesses the necklace Brísíng. (Cap. 35.) Freyja is the most propitious of the goddesses. Her abode in heaven is called Foacutelkváng. To whatever field of battle she rides, she asserts her right to one-half of the slain, the other half belonging to Odin. (Grimnis-mál, 14.) It is from her name that women of birth and fortune are called in our language Freyjor. (Cap. 24.) Hence Old Norse frù, Danish frue, German frau, Dutch vrouw. In part II. of the Prose Edda (The Conversations of Bragi—Bragi-rasdur), in the story of Iduna and her apples, "Loki having borrowed from Freyja her falcon-plumage, flew to Iötun-heima." (Cap. 2.)

Note VII.—Thrym (Thr. 5,1).

Thrym or Hrym. Rime, the old word, now nearly obsolete, but still used in Scotland to signify hoar-frost. Rime was not then as now, a dead chemical thing, but a living Iötun or Devil; the monstrous Iötun Rime drove home his horses at night, sat "combing their manes," which horses were hail-clouds, or fleet frost-winds. (Carlyle's Hero Worship, Lect. 1,57.) Simrock derives the word from thruma (tonitru), and considers Thrym himself as originally identical with Thor, and one of the older gods, in whose hands the thunder had been before the coming of the Æsir. (Simrock's Edda, 4,39.)

Note VIII.—(Thr. 6, 1).

This verse appears to have been an Eddaic formula. We find it also in the Voluspa, v. 46.

Note IX.—(Thr. 10, 1).

This is a formula used in more than one Eddaic poem. See Skirnisför 38. Frà Helga 6,1.

Note X.—(Thr. 13, 3).

Cf.—Volsunga Saga, cap. 38, str. c. Where the hero in anger breaks a jewel.

Note XI.—(Thr. 14, 3).

Cf.—Sigurdhquidha 49, 1.

Note XII.—Heimdall (Thr. 15, 1).

Heimball is called also the White God. He is the son of nine virgins who were sisters, and is a very sacred and powerful deity. He is the warder of the gods, and is therefore placed on the borders of heaven, to prevent the giants from forcing their way over the bridge Bifröst. He requires less sleep than a bird, and sees by night, as well as by day, a hundred miles around him. So acute is his ear that no sound escapes him, for he can even hear the grass growing on the earth, and the wool on a sheep's back. (Prose Edda, cap. 27.)

Note XIII—Asgard (Thr. 18, 2).

Then the sons of Bör (Odin Vili, Ve) built in the middle of the universe the city called Asgard, where dwell the gods and their kindred, and from that abode work out so many wondrous things, both on the earth and in the heavens above it. There is in that city a place called Hlidskjálf, and when Odin is seated there on his lofty throne, he sees over the whole world, discerns all the actions of men, and comprehends whatever he contem-plates. (Cap. 9.)

Note XIV.—Odin (Thr. 21, 4).

The first and eldest of the Æsir is Odin. He governs all things, and although the other gods are powerful, they all serve and obey him as children do their father. Odin is named Alfadir (All-Father), because he is the father of all the gods, and also Valfadir (Choosing Father), because he chooses for his sons all those who fall in combat. For their abode he has prepared Valhalla and Vingoacutelf, where they are called Einherjar (Heroes or Champions). (Cap. 20.) In our language he is called Alfadir; but in the Old Asgard he had twelve names. He liveth from all ages, he governeth all realms, and swayeth all things, great and small. He hath formed heaven and earth, and the air and all things thereunto belonging. And what is more, he hath made man, and given him a soul, which shall live and never perish, though the body shall have mouldered away, or have been burnt to ashes. And all that are righteous shall dwell with him in the place called Gimli or Vingoacutelf; but the wicked shall go to Hel, and thence to Niflhel, which is below, in the ninth world. (Cap. 3.)

Note XV.—(Thr. 23,1).

Cf.—The First Lay of Helgi (Elder Edda) 5, 2.

Cf.—Frà Helga, 5, 1 (Elder Edda); "gullhyrndar kyr fra grams bui." So in the Saga of Gautrekr and Hrolfr it is related that the Peasant Reimr possessed a precious thing, which he prized more than all else, to wit, a great horned ox, whose horns were inlaid with gold and silver, and between them a silver chain, whereon three gold rings hung. Grimm thinks the gold-horned oxen to have, been sacrificial offerings. (Lieder der Alt. Ed. 29.)

Note XVI.—(Thr. 24, 5).

Literally: "drank Sif's man three tuns mead." Thor was Sif's husband, or "man," as the word is still used in Germany and Scotland. The phrase occurs also in the Hymisquidha (15, 3) as a synonym of Thor.

Note XVII.—(Thr. 25, 2).

Similarly in the Lay of Hafbur and Signild. (Danish Kæmpeviser, 27.) Aldrig saae jeg djerve öjen paa nogen stolt Jomfrue, dertil saa Ear hun og to hænder, der ere som jern at skue. Cf.—The Second Lay of Helgi, 2, 1.

Note XVIII.—(Thr. 27, 3).

Cf.—Völundarquidha 15, 3.

Note XIX.—Vöra (Thr. 30, 4).

The goddess Vöra listens to the oaths that men take, and particularly to the troth plighted between man and woman, and punishes those who Keep not their promises. She is wise and prudent, and so penetrating that nothing remains hidden from her. (Cap. 35.)

Note XX.—(Thr. 31.)

The burying of the hammer eight miles deep in the earth, and its recovery, Grimm connects with the old belief, in Germany and the north, that the thunderbolt plunges so far down that it takes seven or nine years to rise again to the surface—"Every year it rises a mile." See "Die Edda," von Karl Simrock (4th Edit., Stuttgard, 1871): Grimm's Mythol., 165. M. Handbuch, p. 57, §28. For the mythical signification of the whole lay, Simrock refers to Uhland 98, and Karl Weinhold Leitschrift, 7, 22.

Note XXI.—Rask's Danish Version.

In the version of the "Thrymsquidha" into Modern Danish, by Rask (2d Edit., Lond. and Cop., 1847), there are a few passages interesting to Orkney and Shetland people as illustrative of the consanguinity which exists between the present dialect of the islands and the Danish tongue. I give them as parallel passages:— page 35

Verse.	Line.
1	3	rev han og sit haar (Dan).	rave he his hair (Ork. & Shet.)
2	2	hær du nu Loke !	hear du nu Loke!
14	4	hur de skulle hente.	hoo dey sal hent.
16	4	fixe vi hans Hoved.	(is this the Yankee "fix?")
21	3	brændte Jord in Lue.	brunt ert in lowe.
22	2	reder os Bænke.	raid wiz benks.
23	3	nok har jeg Skatte.	(this is our old Skatt.)
24	3	aatte lakse.	(eight salmon) hence Lax-firth.
24	5	törsten slukked Tor.	Thor slockit his trist.
25	2	bedre tage til sig.	tak bettor til her.
27	2	han luded under Lin.	he loot under the veil.
28	3	Freyja Sövn ej fik.	(hence our Shetland "Sove.")
29	3	Ræk mig do röde	Ræk me de red
		Ring af din haand.	Ring aff dy haand.
31	1	lo i hans Bryst.	leuch in his breest.
32	3	for hele Penge.	(Penga, or Pinga, is still used in Shetland as a slang word for money.)