1. Fórut lengi "they went not long" - cp. stanza 35:1. The companions have obviously been to Egill's in the meantime, since they have recovered the goats (see stanza 7).

5-6. var skær ... beini lit. "the horse of the wagon-pole had a lop-sided bone", but the lines have been emended. Both mss. have skirr and banni. Neither word makes any sense, despite attempts by many scholars.

Detter (1900) interpreted skirr as "comrade, partner", but this has been rejected by modern editors, many of whom have adopted Rask's emendation to skær "horse" (as has been done here). Skær is quite a common stem-word in wolf- and ship-kennings, but its appropriateness in a goat-kenning may be doubted, unless the term skökull "wagon-pole" had some special connection with Þórr's chariot. This is improbable, but not impossible, as skökull is only found in one other poem, Þrymskviða 21, where it is closely associated with Þórr and his goats: senn vóru hafrar / heim um reknir / skyndir at sköklum = "the goats were driven home at once, and hurried towards the wagon-poles". Banni "prohibition" makes no more sense than skirr. Bugge's emendation to beini has been adopted here as elsewhere, but only for lack of any better solution.

7-8. inn lævísi Loki "the crafty/wicked Loki". Cp. Lokasenna 54: ok var þat sá inn lævísi Loki; Skáldskaparmál 43: Loki Laufeyjarson hafði þat gert til lævísi at klippa hár allt af Sif; Sörla þáttr 2: Hann hafði fram yfir aðra menn vizku þá, er slægð heitir. Hann var mjök kyndugr þegar á unga aldri, því var hann kallaðr Loki lævíss.

The episode of Þórr's lame goat is told in Gylfaginning 44, but in a different mythological context, i.e. at the beginning of the story of Þórr's visit to Útgarða-Loki. Snorri doesn't have anything to say about Loki's fault in the matter, but since we know that Loki was indeed present, this is not difficult to assume. However, in Hymiskviða, Loki is only mentioned this once, and we can only postulate that Loki has visited Egill and somehow caused the disaster (by tricking Þjálfi?), while Þórr and Týr were at Hymir's.