Crushed the falcon of the strand (11);
To the courser of the causeway (12)
Little good was Christ I ween,
When Thor shattered ships to pieces
Gylfi’s hart (13) no God could help.”
And again she sung another song:
“Thangbrand’s vessel from her moorings,
Sea-king’s steed, Thor wrathful tore,
Shook and shattered all her timbers,
Hurled her broadside on the beach;
Ne’er again shall Viking’s snow-shoe (14),
On the briny billows glide,
For a storm by Thor awakened,
Dashed the bark to splinters small.”
After that Thangbrand and Steinvora parted, and they fared west
to Bardastrand.
ENDNOTES:
(1) “Forge which foams with song,” the poet’s head, in which
songs are forged, and gush forth like foaming mead.
(2) “Hero’s helm-prop,” the hero’s, man’s, head which supports
his helm.
(3) It is needless to say that this Hall was not Hall of the
Side.
(4) “Wolf of Gods,” the “caput lupinum,” the outlaw of heaven,
the outcast from Valhalla, Thangbrand.
(5) “The other wolf,” Gudleif.
(6) “Swarthy skarf,” the skarf, or “pelecanus carbo”, the
cormorant. He compares the message of Thorwald to the
cormorant skimming over the waves, and says he will never
take it. “Snap at flies,” a very common Icelandic metaphor
from fish rising to a fly.
(7) Maurer thinks the allusion is here to some mythological
legend on Odin’s adventures which has not come down to us.
(8) “He that giant’s,” etc., Thor.
(9) “Mew-field’s bison,” the sea-going ship, which sails over
the plain of the sea-mew.
(10) “Bell’s warder,” the Christian priest whose bell-ringing
formed part of the rites of the new faith.
(11) “Falcon of the strand,” ship.
(12) “Courser of the causeway,” ship.
(13) “Gylfi’s hart,” ship.
(14) “Viking’s snow-shoe,” sea-king’s ship.
99. OF GEST ODDLEIF’S SON
Gest Oddleit’s son dwelt at Hagi on Bardastrand. He was one of
the wisest of men, so that he foresaw the fates and fortunes of
men. He made a feast for Thangbrand and his men. They fared to
Hagi with sixty men. Then it was said that there were two
hundred heathen men to meet them, and that a Baresark was looked
for to come thither, whose name was Otrygg, and all were afraid
of him. Of him such great things as these were said, that he
