This half-stanza consists of two clauses:

Fríðir eiðsvara víkingar Gauta setrs, snotrir runnar gunnar, óðu fast, en sverð-fen flaut, i.e. "the glorious, battle-wise warriors, oath-sworn vikings of Gauti's dwelling, waded hard, while the sword-fen [ocean] flowed".

fríðir ] is an emendation for friðar (see 4:3). The meter demands a long syllable, but fríðar can hardly be fitted into the syntax. The warriors are fríðir, either "handsome" or "glorious".

snotrir gunnar runnar ] Gunnar runnar (battle-trees) is a known kenning for "warriors". Here, they are also gunnar snotrir "battle-wise".

Gauta setrs ] The seat of Odin is either Asgard or Valholl. Gauta setr can also mean "seat of the gods", which amounts to the same.

sverð-fen ] On the basis of the text of T and W, line 4 has been emended by various editors to read svarðrunnið fen, i.e. "the fen (river) which runs over the sward". Fen could, of course, mean either "ocean" or "river", but the word svarðrunninn seems dubious. I prefer to read sverð-fen "sword-river" as a name for the river (or ocean). From Völuspá 36, we know a similar river: Á fellur austan / um eiturdala / söxum og sverðum / Slíðr heitir sú: "A river flows from the east through icy (venomous) valleys, with sabres and swords, it is named Slíðr". This may, indeed, be the Arctic Ocean, which Thor is wading here. It flows through eiturdalir "valleys of venom", and we have already seen (in stanza 6) that the "poison" spewed forth by the ocean (serpent) is equivalent to the icy cold of the Northern Seas. The "sabres and swords" carried by the river Slíðr are equivalent to the terrible cold of the ocean, which is like poison, and cuts like the edge of a sword. The image of cold as a sword, or venom, is alive and well in modern Icelandic (nístingskaldr, eiturkaldr, eitrsvalr). In a stanza quoted in Skáldskaparmál 70, the Midgard-worm is called eitrsvalr naður "venom-cold serpent". In another stanza in the same chapter of Skáldskaparmál, we find the expression eitrköld elfr "venom-cold river". In a stanza from Þórðar saga hreðu, we find the Midgard-worm referred to as eitrþvengr öldu "poison-string of the wave".

Indeed, if such a methaphor was intended by the poet, a skaldic pun may also be suspected, based on the similarity of the words Slíðr "the fierce, cruel one", and slíðr "scabbard" [cp. slíðrbeitr "cruel-cutting" in Atlakviða 21:5].

Among kennings for the sword we find: garmur slíðra "dog/wolf of the scabbard"; flugdreki slíðra "flying dragon of the scabbard"; slíðr-áll "eel of the scabbard"; slíðrvöndur "wand of the scabbard". The primary meaning of the word gandr is "staff, wand", but it can also mean "wolf", and in the combinations Jörmungandr (the great worm) and Vánargandr (the wolf Fenrir) it surely means "monster". Therefore, if we take the name Slíðr to refer to the great ocean surrounding Midgard, the Midgard Worm might be poetically thought of as a "sword", since it is both a monster (garmr, dreki, gandr) and a staff/wand (vöndr, gandr) which rests in the terrible scabbard (Slíðr/slíðr). A much quoted expression from Hymiskviða refers to the great ocean-serpent as umgjörð allra landa "the surrounding girdle of all lands". However, we cannot overlook the fact that the word umgjörð, umgerð was frequently used to mean "sheath, scabbard".

The piercing cold of the Arctic Ocean is thus equivalent to the fierce pain caused by the sword's edge, which is also equivalent to the venomous cold (eitr) spewed forth by the terrible ocean-serpent (þjóðáar fnæstu eitri, 5:7-8).