TorfE Lv 4I/8 — grjóti ‘stones’
Rekit hefk Rǫgnvalds dauða
— rétt skiptu því nornir —
— nús folkstuðill fallinn —
at fjórðungi mínum.
Verpið, snarpir sveinar,
þvít sigri vér rôðum,
(skatt velk hônum harðan)
at Háfœtu grjóti.
Hefk rekit dauða Rǫgnvalds at fjórðungi mínum; nornir skiptu því rétt; nús folkstuðill fallinn. Verpið grjóti at Háfœtu, snarpir sveinar, þvít vér rôðum sigri; velk hônum harðan skatt.
I have avenged Rǫgnvaldr’s death for my quarter-share; the norns arranged that rightly; now the people’s support [RULER] is fallen. Throw stones at Háfœta (‘Long-legs’), brave lads, because we hold the victory; I choose hard tribute for him.
notes
[5, 8] verpið grjóti ‘throw stones’: The exact application of these words is uncertain and perhaps deliberately ambiguous. (a) Stones, rocks and gravel were frequently used for mound burials, cf. kasta haug ‘erect a burial mound’ referring to Hálfdan’s mound in the prose of Orkn (ÍF 34, 15). (b) They might also be used for a rudimentary temporary or dishonorable interment of human beings, designed chiefly to keep animals off the corpse, or for the burial of livestock (cf. Olsen 1942b, 40-1; Genzmer 1943, 516-17). (c) Stoning might be used to put somebody to death, as in Hamð 25, but this is unlikely and it is not how the prose compilers understood the stanza (cf. von See 1960, 38).