1. Ár here means "in ancient times, once (upon a time), long ago, of yore" as it usually does when it occurs at or near the beginning of a poem (Völuspá 2:2, Rígsþula 1:1, Atlakviða 1:2, Guðrúnarkviða I 1:1, Sigurðakviða 1:1).

1. valtívar means literally "gods of the battle-slain", and occurs only here and in Völuspá (52, 63). But no specific meaning is intended, and the term could simply be translated as "gods".

2. námu veiðar is an ambiguous phrase, which occurs only here. The feminine noun veiðr can mean either "chase, hunt" (thus Völundarkviða 4, 8) or "prey, kill, game" (thus Reginsmál prose: sýndu veiði sína). Subsequently, three meanings seem equally possible: "went hunting, were hunting", "made a kill during hunting, caught game", or "feasted off game".

3. sumblsamir - for a similar absence of the copula, cp. stanza 25. The word sumbl can mean either "drinking feast" or "drink, ale", and reappears in stanza 2. It occurs frequently, for obvious reasons, in the Lokasenna (3, 4, 7, 8, 10, 65).

5-6. teinar, hlaut "twigs, blood" - the reference is to some kind of divinatory practice. Hlaut is a technical term for sacrificial blood used ritually. It has been assumed that teinar "twigs, wands" were dipped in the blood and shaken, and the resulting pattern of randomly sprinkled blood read and interpreted as an oracle. However, there is much disagreement regarding these practices, see Simek (1993) p. 151 (hlautteinn), and p. 253 (oracles).

8. Ægir, the Giant of the Ocean. His name means literally "ocean", resulting in occasional ambiguity. [For ægir = "ocean", see, for example, Völuspá 60: Sér hún upp koma / öðru sinni / jörð úr ægi, and Rígsþula 43: ægi lægja.] Ægir is infrequently mentioned in Eddaic poetry, but usually associated with drinking-feasts (Hymiskviða 39; Grímnismál 45; Lokasenna prose, 3, 4, 10, 14, 16, 18, 27, 65). His wife was Rán, and their daughters were the waves (Helgakviða I 29). Hymiskviða is immediately followed by Lokasenna in the Codex Regius, and the prose introduction to the latter poem attempts to link the two: "Ægir, whose name was also Gymir, had brewed ale for the gods as soon as he had received the mighty cauldron, as now has been related". Ægir's role as ale-brewer for the gods is apparently quite old. In Sonatorrek (ca. 960), Egill Skallagrímsson's lament for his sons, the Ocean-giant is referred to as "ale-smith" (ölsmiðr).

Translation notes: Larrington inaccurately translates valtívar as "victory-gods" here (possibly confusing it with, and misunderstanding, the similar term sigtívar), and as "gods of slaughter" and "slaughter-gods" in the Völuspá stanzas referred to above. The ambiguity of the phrase veiðar námu understandably results in a variety of interpretations: "had been taking fish" (Thorpe), "their prey had won them" (Bray), "made feast together" (Bellows), "much game had gathered" (Hollander), "they'd had a good hunt" (Terry), and "ate their catch from hunting" (Larrington). In line 4 Thorpe reads saðir "sated" as sannir "true", and arrives at the amusingly ungrammatical "ere they the truth discovered". The last line of the stanza was not properly understood in Bugge's time, and in his edition of the poems (1867, p. 105) he suggested various emendations, which resulted in Bray's "and found all dainties / in Ægir's halls", and Bellows' "rich fare in Ægir's / hall they found".