Þat erumk sent, at snemma
sonr Aldafǫðrs vildi
afls við úri þafðan
jarðar reist of freista.
Þat erumk sent, at sonr Aldafǫðrs vildi snemma of freista afls við reist jarðar, þafðan úri.
It is conveyed to me that the son of mankind’s father [= Óðinn > = Þórr] soon wanted to try his strength against the twisted thing of the earth [= Miðgarðsormr], pounded by water.
[4] reist: ‘[…]eist’ U
[4] reist jarðar ‘the twisted thing of the earth [= Miðgarðsormr]’: A kenning for the World Serpent, Miðgarðsormr, who was imagined to lie coiled around the circular earth. It belongs to a kenning-type whose base-word represents the serpent as a thong, rope, girdle or ring (Meissner 114-15). Reistr m. is a hap. leg., lit. ‘twisted, bent thing’; cf. the weak verb reista ‘bend, curve’ and see Marold (1993b, 301 n. 10).
case: acc.