_Snöfrid_ is a mythical being idealized by Rydberg into a guiding genius
pointing the way of ambition, strife and self-sacrifice, while most
poets dealing with similar characters, so common in literature, make
them out wanton and seductive agencies of destruction, like the sirens.
35. _troll i dvärgaham_, dwarflike trolls. _Hamn_, shape, apparition, is
sometimes, and probably more correctly, written _ham_; so also by
LEVERTIN in _En gammal nyårsvisa_:
_som en svart och spöklik ham
sorgens fåle dröjer_.
99. _ju himlen närmare_, for _ju närmare himlen_, is a poetic
innovation; _ju_ and _desto_, as conjunctions, immediately precede the
comparative form of the adjective.
109-10. Allusion to the Eddic song _Voluspá_, stanzas 8 and 63, where it
is said of the gods:
8. _Guldtavel på gården
de glade lekte
--allt av guld
de i överflöd hade_.
63. _Därefter varda
de underbara
guldtavlorna
i gräset funna,
dem de i urtiden
ägt hade_.