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.
[3] þafðan: ‘hefðann’ Tˣ, þæfðan W, þaktan U, ‘þe᷎fðan’ B
[3] þafðan ‘pounded’: The inf. form *þefja, of which þafðr ‘pounded, stirred, beaten’ is the p. p., has not been recorded in Old Icelandic, but must have existed; the p. p. þafðan is recorded in the sense of ‘thickened by stirring’ (of porridge) in Eyrbyggja saga (Eb ch. 39, ÍF 4, 105). Skj B and Skald, basing themselves on W’s and B’s readings, prefer the form þœfðan, which would derive from the more common verb þœfa ‘press/full cloth’.