‘How should gold be referred to?’
‘It can be called the fire of Ægir, the leaf of Glasir, the hair of Sif, the headband of Fulla, the tears of Freyja, the utterance, voice, or words of the giants, the drops of Draupnir, the rain or shower from Draupnir or from Freyja’s eyes, recompense for the otter, repayment for the blow struck by the gods, the seed of the plains of Fyri, the covering of Holgi’s burial mound or the fire of all expressions for water and hands, also the boulder, rocky islet or lustre of the hands.
‘It has now become customary for gold to be called “fire of the sea”, and all the words for sea, on the basis that Ægir and Ran’s names denote the sea. Hence gold is now called the fire of lakes or rivers and all the specific names of rivers. Indeed, the range of these words has been further extended, just as with other poetic diction and kennings, so that more recent poets have composed their verses by expanding on the instances of this diction found in the work of their predecessors. They have included words that in their opinions corresponded to diction already in use: for example, lake is similar to sea, river is similar to lake, and creek is similar to river. For this reason we apply the term nygerving [new coinage] to all such extensions of a given type of diction. They are regarded favourably when there is a natural and unstrained resemblance between the concepts.’
‘Why is gold called the foliage or leaf of Glasir?’
‘In front of the doors of Valhalla in Asgard is a grove called Glasir, whose foliage consists entirely of red gold. This is the most beautiful woodland known to gods and humans.’