Note 52 — The Ballad of Svipdag

Lyfjaberg (“Hill of Healing”): the manuscripts vary as to this name; I have followed Bugge’s suggestion. This stanza implies that Mengloth is a goddess of healing, and hence, perhaps, an hypostasis of Frigg, as already intimated by her name (cf. stanza 3, note). In stanza 54 Eir appears as one of Mengloth’s handmaidens, and Eir, according to Snorri (Gylfaginning, 35) is herself the Norse Hygeia. Compare this stanza with stanza 32.