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Poetic Edda

  Harbarth spake:32. "Thy help did I need then, Thor,  to hold the white maid fast."
  Thor spake:33. "Gladly, had I been there,  my help to thee had been given."
  Harbarth spake:34. "I might have trusted thee then,  didst thou not betray thy troth."
  Thor spake:35.[1] "No heel-biter am I, in truth,  like an old leather shoe in spring."
  Harbarth spake:36. "What, Thor, didst thou the while?"
  Thor spake:37.[2] "In Hlesey the brides  of the Berserkers slew I;Most evil they were,  and all they betrayed."
  1. ↑ Heel-biter: this effective parallel to our "back-biter" is not found elsewhere in Old Norse.
  2. ↑ Hlesey: "the Island of the Sea-God" (Hler = Ægir), identified with the Danish island Läsö, in the Kattegat. It appears again, much out of place, in Oddrunargratr, 28. Berserkers: originally men who could turn themselves into bears, hence the name, "bear-shirts"; cf. the werewolf or loupgarou. Later the name was applied to men who at times became seized with a madness for bloodshed; cf. Hyndluljoth, 23 and note. The women here mentioned are obviously of the earlier type.

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