Note 143 — APPENDIX.
Reading edition
The alliteration of the original line, and its peculiar poetic beauty, which consists in an allusion to one of the fables of the Northern mythology, is happily preserved in this translation. Gardar-rike—Russia, the Russian land. Gerda, a mythic poetic name for Harald’s mistress Elizabeth. Gerda was the beloved of Freyr, the god of the sun, whose love was so long resisted by Gerda. Freyr had also offered to Gerda a golden ring—hence the allusion.—F. Magnussen, Lex. Myt. Bor. 116. 439.