[Footnote 24: The first eight strophes of this composition require an
explanation which I am incompetent to afford. They have had many
interpreters and as many interpretations. The idea of Odin hanging on
a tree would seem to have been suggested by what we read of the grove
at Upsala, or Sigtuna, in which the victims offered to that deity were
suspended from the trees. In the guise of an unknown wanderer, Odin
may be supposed to have been captured and thus offered to himself. It
no doubt refers to some lost legend.]
[Footnote 25: Probably, send them (the runes) forth on their several
missions.]
[Footnote 26: The miraculous powers here ascribed by Odin to himself
bear, in many instances, a remarkable similarity to those attributed
to him by Snorri.]
[Footnote 27: The ancient inhabitants of the North believed that the
roots of trees were particularly fitted for hurtful trolldom, or
witchcraft, and that wounds caused thereby were mortal. In India a
similar superstition prevails of the hurtfulness of the roots of
trees.]