Note to Eil Þdr 3III
[7-8] spenndu gaupnum ilja um Mó Endils ‘clasped the Mór <horse> of Endill <sea-king> [SHIP] with the palms of their foot-soles’: Setting foot aboard a ship is represented here by a metaphor, spenna gaupnum ‘clasp with the palms’, the interpretation of which is determined by ilja ‘of the foot-soles’ (a corrected metaphor). Gaupnum ilja ‘with the palms of their foot-soles’ is not a kenning, because it has no referent. The emendation of the prep. á (so all mss) to um is necessary here because the verb spenna in the sense ‘clasp’ is construed with the prep. um ‘around’ and not with á ‘on, onto, at’ (see Fritzner: I. spenna).