[5-6]: The quality of being white-hooded describes both waves and young, marriageable women or brides. The juxtaposition of the latter image with l. 6 creates a riddling paradox. Part of the prose solution in the U redaction reads (Heiðr 1924, 132-3): þær fylgia iafnann farmonnum og eru verlausar ‘they always follow seafarers and are without husbands’, suggesting a now-lost variant l. 5. See further Burrows (2013, 202-4).