Arn Þorfdr 13II/7 — gínði ‘gaped’
Veitk, þars Vatnsfjǫrðr heitir,
(vask í miklum haska)
míns (við mannkyns reyni)
merki dróttins verka.
Þjóð bar skjótt af skeiðum
skjaldborg fríamorgin;
gǫrla sák, at gínði
grár ulfr of ná sôrum.
Veitk merki verka dróttins míns, þars heitir Vatnsfjǫrðr; vask í miklum haska við reyni mannkyns. Þjóð bar skjótt skjaldborg af skeiðum fríamorgin; sák gǫrla, at grár ulfr gínði of sôrum ná.
I know there are tokens of the exploits of my lord, where it is called Vatnsfjǫrðr; I was in great peril with the trier of men [RULER]. The crew carried swiftly the shield-wall from the warships on Friday morning; I saw clearly that the grey wolf gaped over the wounded corpse.
readings
[7] gínði: so Flat, grínði R702ˣ, SLR
notes
[7] gínði ‘gaped’: This is quite a common image: cf. vargar gínðu of hræ ‘wolves gaped over carrion’ in ESk Geisl 29/7, 8VII. Grínði ‘grinned, stretched his jaws’ in R702ˣ and SLR may reflect a scribal error in a previous stage of transmission, but as the lectio difficilior cannot be ruled out as the original reading. The verb grína ‘grin, stare, squeal, grunt’ is rare in ON and normally strong (AEW), but grínði is supported by the fact that the verb is weak in ModIcel. Either way, the l. lacks the expected skothending, but no obvious emendation suggests itself.