Til holtz ec gecc oc til hrás vidar gambantein at geta, gambantein ec gat.
"I went to Holt And to the juicy tree Gambantein to get, Gambantein I got."
The word _teinn_, a branch, a twig, has the meaning of sword in all the compounds where it occurs: _benteinn_, _bifteinn_, _eggteinar_, _hævateinn_ (_homateinn_), _hjörteinn_, _hræteinn_, _sárteinn_, _valteinn_. _Mistelteinn_ has also become the name of a sword (Younger Edda, i. 564; Fornald., i, 416, 515; ii. 371; cp. No. 101), and the same weapon as is here called _gambanteinn_ is called _hævateinn_, _homateinn_ (see further No. 116) in Fjölsvinnsmal.
In the mythology there is only one single place which is called Holt. It is _Mimis holt_, _Hoddmimis holt_, the subterranean grove, where the children who are to be the parents of the future race of man have their secure abode until the regeneration of the world (see Nos. 52, 53), living on the morning-dew which falls from the world-tree, _hrár vidr_, "the tree rich in sap" (see No. 89). Mimer-Nidhad also comes from Holt when he imprisons Volund (Volund., 14). It has already been proved above that, on his journey in the lower world, Svipdag also came to _Mimis holt_, and saw the citadel within which the _ásmegir_ have their asylum.
Saxo has known either the above-cited strophe or another resembling it, and when his Erik-Svipdag speaks of his journey in ambiguous words (_obscura umbage_), Saxo makes him say: _Ad trunca sylvarum robora penetravi ... ibi cuspis a robore regis excussa est_ (_Hist._, 206). With the expression _ad robora sylvarum penetravi_ we must compare _til holtz ec gecc_. The words _robur regis_ refer to the tree of the lower world king, Mimer _Mimameidr_, the world-tree. Erik-Svipdag's purpose with his journey to this tree is to secure a weapon. Saxo calls this weapon _cuspis_. Fjölsvinnsmal calls it, with a paraphrase, _broddr_. _Cuspis_ is a translation of _broddr_.
Thus there can be no doubt concerning the identity of Skirner with Svipdag.
SVIPDAG'S LATER FORTUNES. HIS TRANSFORMATION AND DEATH. FREYJA GOES IN SEARCH OF HIM. FREYJA'S EPITHET MARDÖLL. THE SEA-KIDNEY, BRISINGAMEN. SVIPDAG'S EPITHET HERMÓDR.
When the war between the Asas and the Vans had broken out, Svipdag, as we have learned, espouses the cause of the Vans (see Nos. 33, 38), to whom he naturally belongs as the husband of the Vana-dis Freyja and Frey's most intimate friend. The happy issue of the war for the Vans gives Svipdag free hands in regard to Halfdan's hated son Hadding, the son of the woman for whose sake Svipdag's mother Groa was rejected. Meanwhile Svipdag offers Hadding reconciliation, peace, and a throne among the Teutons (see No. 38). When Hadding refuses to accept gifts of mercy from the slayer of his father, Svipdag persecutes him with irreconcilable hate. This hatred finally produces a turning-point in Svipdag's fortunes and darkens the career of the brilliant hero. After the Asas and Vans had become reconciled again, one of their first thoughts must have been to put an end to the feud between the Teutonic tribes, since a continuation of the latter was not in harmony with the peace restored among the gods (see No. 41), nevertheless the war was continued in Midgard (see No. 41), and the cause is Svipdag. He has become a rebel against both Asas and Vans, and herein we must look for the reason why, as we read in the Younger Edda, he disappeared from Asgard (Younger Edda, 114). But he disappears not only from the world of the gods, but finally also from the terrestrial seat of war, and that god or those gods who were to blame for this conceal his unhappy and humiliating fate from Freyja. It is at this time that the faithful and devoted Vana-dis goes forth to seek her lover in all worlds _med ukunnum thjódum_.