Gerisk sókn mikil snáka tveggja;
gapa grimmliga grundar belti.
Hǫggvask hœknir hauðrs gyrðingar,
blásask eitri á ok blôm eldi.
Mikil sókn snáka tveggja gerisk; belti grundar gapa grimmliga. Hœknir gyrðingar hauðrs hǫggvask, blásask eitri ok blôm eldi á.
A great fight commences between the two snakes; the belts of the ground [SNAKES] gape savagely. The vicious girdles of the earth [SNAKES] strike each other, blow venom and blue fire on each other.
[8] blôm eldi ‘blue fire’: The reference is probably to the blue flame emitted on combustion of sulphur. In a fragment of Barth extant in the mid-C13th Norwegian ms. AM 237 b fol (Loth 1969, 233), the phrase blár loge ‘blue flame’ is used to translate Lat. flamma sulphurea ‘sulphurous flame’ (cf. ONP: blár 3; Loth 1969, 221).