Note 27 — The Ballad of Skirnir

Eagle’s hill: the hill at the end of heaven, and consequently overlooking hell, where the giant Hræsvelg sits “in an eagle’s guise,” and makes the winds with his wings; cf. Vafthruthnismol, 37, also Voluspo, 50. The second line is faulty in both manuscripts; Hildebrand’s emendation corrects the error, but omits an effective touch; the manuscript line may be rendered “And look and hanker for hell.” The Arnamagnæan Codex breaks off with the fourth line of this stanza.