Sturl Hrafn 13II/7 — vegs ‘of honour’
Drógu dynsveigis
darra flugskjarrir
báta baugnjótar
breiðar strandleiðir.
Eyddu óhræddir
eyjar geirþeyjum
vegs í víðbygðu*
vatni herskatnar.
Flugskjarrir baugnjótar darra dynsveigis 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].
readings
[7] vegs í: vægðar Flat
notes
[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’.