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stripped the skin off the otter. That same evening they sought a night's lodging at Hreithmar's house, and showed their booty. Then we seized them, and told them, as ransom for their lives, to fill the otter skin with gold, and completely cover it outside as well with red gold. Then they sent Loki to get the gold; he went to Ron[1] and got her net, and went then to Andvari's fall and cast the net in front of the pike, and the pike leaped into the net." Then Loki said:

1.[2] "What is the fish  that runs in the flood,  And itself from ill cannot save? If thy head thou wouldst  from hell redeem,  Find me the water's flame."

    Prose.

    Hjalprek: father of Alf, Sigurth's step-father; cf. Fra Dautha Sinfjotla, and note.

    Grani: cf. Gripisspo, 5 and note.

    Regin ("Counsel-Giver"): undoubtetly he goes back to the smith of the German story; in the Thithrekssaga version he is called Mimir, while Regin is there the name of the dragon (here Regin's brother, Fafnir). The Voluspo (stanza 12) names a Regin among the dwarfs, and the name may have assisted in making Regin a dwarf here.

    Hreithmar: nothing is known of him outside of this story.

    Othin, Hönir and Loki: these same three gods appear in company in Voluspo, 17-18.

    Andvari's fall: according to Snorri, who tells this entire story in the Skaldskaparmal, Andvari's fall was in the world of the dark elves, while the one where Loki killed the otter was not; here, however, the two are considered identical.

    With his eyes shut: according to Snorri, Otr ate with his eyes shut because be was so greedy that he could not bear to see the food before him diminishing.

  1. ↑ Ron: wife of the sea-god Ægir, who draws down drowning men with her net; cf. Helgakvitha Hjorvarthssonar, 18 and note. Snorri says that Loki caught the pike with his hands.
  2. ↑ Snorri quotes this stanza. Water's flame: gold, so called because Ægir, the sea-god, was wont to light his hall with gold.

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