Page:The Prose Edda (1916 translation by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur).pdf/165

Hasted; grewsome of fashion

And ugly all the gods were.

.   .   .   .   .   .   .^[1]

This heard I, that the Staunch Friend

Of Hœnir—oft thereafter

With wiles he tricked the Æsir—

Flew, in hawk-wings hidden;

And the vile Sire of Giants,

Vigorous Wing-Plume-Wielder,

Hurtled on eagle-pinion

After the hawk-shaped Loki.

Swiftly the gods have kindled

A fire; and the sovereign rulers

Sustained the flame with shavings:

Scorched was the flying giant,--

He plunged down in mid-soaring:

'Tis pictured on the giant's

Sole-bridge, the shield which, painted

With stories, Thórleifr gave me.]

"This is the correct manner of periphrasing the Æsir: To call each of them by the name of another, and to designate him in terms of his works or his possessions or his kindred.

XXIII. "How should the heaven be periphrased? Thus: call it Skull of Ymir, and hence, Giant's Skull; Task or Burden of the Dwarves, or Helm of Vestri and Austri, Sudri, or Nordri; Land of the Sun, of the Moon, and of the

1. "Brjála ður texti"—Jónsson, Edda (Reykjavik, 1907), p. 384. The condition of the text makes translation impossible.