2. sá er öldum bergr "he who saves/protects men" - cp. vinr verliða "friend of humans" in stanza 11.

3. einbani "lone slayer", presumably one who kills without help from others (cp. Grímnismál 50). Þórr will kill the serpent in the final battle (see Völuspá 56-57, Gylfaginning 51).

7-8. umgjörð ... allra landa "girdle of all lands", i.e. the Midgard serpent. This exact kenning is also found in a fragment, preserved for us by Snorri in Skáldskaparmál (# 43), and attributed to Ölvir hnúfa, a 9th century skald. From the 9th century, we also find endiseiðr allra landa "boundary-fish of all lands" (Bragi, Skáldskaparmál # 48), or simply seiðr jarðar "fish of earth" (Eysteinn Valdason, 10th century, Skáldskaparmál # 47). Any kenning of this type could, of course, also indicate the ocean. See, for example, umband allra landa "belt of all lands", i.e. ocean (Hallvarðr Háreksblesi, 11th century, Skáldskaparmál # 348).

Translation notes: The most common error in the translations inspected is the treatment of neðan in line 7. This properly belongs with gein in line 5: the serpent gapes from below. The position of neðan has misled most of the translators to read it, rather ungrammatically, as a part of the kenning umgjörð allra landa, with various puzzling results: "the encircler beneath / of every land" (Thorpe), "the Girdle lying / all lands beneath" (Bray), "the girdler of all / the earth beneath" (Bellows), "the Circumscriber beneath all lands" (Larrington). Trying to make sense of this, Terry comes up with "the hidden Serpent". Hollander simply ignores the word, and goes for heavy alliteration instead: "mighty monster / the Mithgarth worm", which is rather an unfortunate choice, as this appellation of Serpent never appears in poetry (see below). Terry's Þórr is simply "the bane of monsters", and her Jörmungandr is "one who hates the gods", rather than the poem's actual "one whom the gods hate".

Jörmungandr "enormous monster" is the oldest preserved name of Þórr's arch-enemy. The Great Serpent is thus named in Völuspá 50: snýz Jörmungandr / í jötunmóði / ormr knýr unnir "Jörmungandr writhes in giant fury, the serpent lashes the waves", and stanza 16 of Ragnarsdrápa (Bragi the Old, 9th century), quoted by Snorri in Skáldskaparmál # 42: es rakðisk ... Jörmungandr at sandi "when Jörmungandr uncoiled on the sand". The term Miðgarðsormr "Midgard's Serpent" seems to be much younger. The oldest source is from the 12th century, and it is only found in prose (apart from one Nafnaþula). In the Codex Regius it is found in the title of Hymiskviða: Þórr dró Miðgarðs orm "Þórr caught the serpent of Midgard". Originally, this term can not have been a proper name, but rather an appellative or a designation meaning "Midgard-encircling serpent", cp. Gylfaginning 34: annat Jörmungandr - þat er Miðgarðsormr "the second [child] was Jörmungandr, that is to say Midgard's serpent". Only in the writings of Snorri Sturluson do we find an attempt to collect the various bits and pieces of the myth or myths concerning Jörmungandr. According to Gylfaginning 34, he is one of three children, along with Fenrir and Hel, of Loki and a giantess named Angrboða. We find support for this in the Þórsdrápa of Eilífr Goðrúnarson (late 10th century), where Loki is referred to by the viðkenning faðir lögseims "father of the ocean-thread". Snorri further informs us that the gods realized "that from these siblings great mischief and disaster would arise" and that "evil was to be expected from them, to begin with because of their mother's nature, but still worse because of their father's. Then All-Father sent the gods to get the children and bring them to him. And when they came to him, he threw the serpent into that deep sea which lies round all lands, and this serpent grew so that it lies in the midst of the ocean encircling all lands and bites on its own tail" [Faulkes]. The famous incident of Þórr's "fishing-trip" is narrated in Chapter 48 of Snorri's Gylfaginning, and Hymiskviða (see commentaries to stanzas 22-24 for detailed treatment). The final confrontation between the two adversaries will take place during Ragnarök, where Þórr will slay the Serpent, but then succumb to its venom (Völuspá 56, Gylfaginning 51). The myth of a great serpent-like monster, which lies in the encircling ocean and circumscribes the earth (Midgard), and faces its greatest enemy, Þórr, during the fishing expedition related in Hymiskviða, is obviously ancient, as evidenced by Skaldic poetry dating back to the 9th century. Apart from Bragi's above-mentioned Ragnarsdrápa, we find this myth referred to in Úlfr Uggason's Húsdrápa (ca. 985), and partially preserved poems by Ölvir hnúfa (9th century), Gamli gnævaðarskáld (10th century), and Eysteinn Valdason (ca. 1000). Important evidence for Þórr's fishing expedition is also derived from representations on four Viking Age pictorial stones: the Altuna stone (early 11th century), the Hørdum stone (8th - 11th century), the Ardre VIII stone (8th century), and the Gosforth stone (10th century). An excellent analysis of the above sources may be found in Preben Meulengracht Sørensen: Thor's Fishing Expedition (pp. 257-278 of Words and Objects: Towards a Dialogue between Archaeology and History of Religion, ed. by Gro Steinsland, Oslo 1986).