Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Sturla Þórðarson, Hrafnsmál 13’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 738.
Drógu dynsveigis
darra flugskjarrir
báta baugnjótar
breiðar strandleiðir.
Eyddu óhræddir
eyjar geirþeyjum
vegs í víðbygðu*
vatni herskatnar.
{Flugskjarrir baugnjótar} {{darra dyn}sveigis} drógu báta breiðar strandleiðir. Óhræddir herskatnar vegs eyddu eyjar í víðbygðu* vatni {geirþeyjum}.
{The flight-shy ring-users} [GENEROUS MEN] {of the swayer {of the din of spears}} [(lit. ‘of the din-swayer of spears’) BATTLE > WARRIOR] pulled the boats along the broad beach-paths. The fearless war-men of honour devastated the islands in the widely inhabited lake {with spear-winds} [BATTLE].
Mss: F(122vb), 304ˣ(362v), Flat(185vb) (Hák)
Readings: [1] ‑sveigis: ‑sveigir 304ˣ [6] ‑þeyjum: þeyja 304ˣ, þeyju Flat [7] vegs í: vægðar Flat; ‑bygðu*: ‑bygðum all
Editions: Skj AII, 122, Skj BII, 129-30, Skald II, 70, NN §2829; F 1871, 575, Hák 1977-82, 200, Flat 1860-8, III, 224.
Context: After the failed peace negotiations with the Scots, Hákon sent forty (Flat: sixty) ships into Loch Long. The Norwegians pulled their boats across land up to Loch Lomond in the district of Lennox, where they destroyed the entire countryside and devastated all the inhabited islands in the lake.
Notes: [All]: For the custom of portage, pulling boats and ships across land, see the discussion in ÍF 30, xxviii-xxix and n. 1. See also Anon (HSig) 5. — [1] dynsveigis ‘of the din-swayer’: Sveigir (nomen agentis to sveigja ‘bend, flex, sway’) taken here in the meaning ‘swayer’, i.e. ‘one who decides the outcome of sth.’ (see also NN §2829). As a base-word in warrior kennings, sveigir usually occurs in the more concrete sense ‘bender’ (see LP: sveigir). — [3] baugnjótar ‘ring-users [GENEROUS MEN]’: See st. 10/3 above. — [4] strandleiðir ‘beach-paths’: Hap. leg. — [7] vegs ‘of honour’: In the present edn this gen. is construed with herskatnar ‘war-men’ (lit. ‘wealthy men of the army’) (l. 8). Following Konráð Gíslason (1895-7, I, 100), Skj B and Skald emend to veggs ‘of the wall’ and take this as a determinant in an inverted kenning veggs geirþeyjum ‘of the winds of the spear’s wall’ in which ‘the spear’s wall’ is a shield and its wind is ‘battle’. However, the order of elements in that kenning violates the structure of an inverted kenning (we would expect geirs veggþeyjum). Vægðar (f. gen. sg.) ‘of mercy’ (so Flat) cannot be construed in any meaningful way and omits the syntactically required prep. í ‘in’. — [7] víðbygðu* (n. dat. sg.) ‘widely inhabited’: The adj. qualifies vatni (n. dat. sg.) ‘the lake’ and víðbygðum (so all mss) is dat. pl. or m. dat. sg. — [8] herskatnar ‘war-men’: Lit. ‘wealthy men of the army’: Hap. leg.
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