Note 37 — The Ballad of Grimnir

Müllenhoff suspects stanzas 37–41 to have been interpolated, and Edzardi thinks they may have come from the Vafthruthnismol. Snorri closely paraphrases stanzas 37–39, and quotes 40–41. Arvak (“Early Waker”) and Alsvith (“All-Swift”): the horses of the sun, named also in Sigrdrifumol, 15. According to Snorri: “There was a man called Mundilfari, who had two children; they were so fair and lovely that he called his son Mani and his daughter Sol. The gods were angry at this presumption, and took the children and set them up in heaven; and they bade Sol drive the horses that drew the car of the sun which the gods had made to light the world from the sparks which flew out of Muspellsheim. The horses were called Alsvith and Arvak, and under their yokes the gods set two bellows to cool them, and in some songs these are called ‘the cold iron.’ ”