Note to Þjóð Haustl 18III
[2, 4] bolm fjalfrs ólágra gjalfra ‘the bear of the hiding-place of not low roaring waters [CAVE > GIANT = Hrungnir]’: As often in giant-kennings, an animal base-word is employed (cf. Meissner 258-9). Here Hrungnir is compared to a bear, and his dwelling to a mountain cave, which is fjalfr ólágra gjalfra ‘the hiding-place of not low [i.e. high] roaring waters’. Ólágr lit. ‘un-low’ could be understood in two senses: high, in the sense of stormy, rising high (of roaring waters or seas), or high in the sense of high up in the mountains. The latter is probably the more likely here.