[1] hesta hafs ‘of the horses of the sea [SHIPS]’: If hestr hafnar ‘horse of the harbour’ in Ragn 33/7 is accepted as a kenning for ‘ship’, it is arguable that the speaker of Ragn 34 is here outdoing the speaker of that stanza with a kenning that develops the idea of a ship further. A hestr hafnar might be thought of as a ship that seldom or never leaves the harbour, in contrast to a hestr hafs ‘horse of the sea’ which braves the challenges of the open sea.
References
- Internal references
- Rory McTurk (ed.) 2017, ‘Ragnars saga loðbrókar 33 (Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísur from Ragnars saga loðbrókar 3)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 689.
- Rory McTurk (ed.) 2017, ‘Ragnars saga loðbrókar 34 (Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísur from Ragnars saga loðbrókar 4)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 690.