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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Auðunn Lv 2I/3 — herkir ‘giant’

Stóðu vér und víðum
vindar tjǫlgu linda,
herkir hyrjar serkja;
hvé of vélti þat belti?
Þat hykk hrammfjǫturs hvǫttu
Hlǫkk; fannkat mey rakka
í barrskelfis bjalfa
bjúgs þá raman smjúga.

Stóðu vér und víðum linda tjǫlgu vindar, herkir hyrjar serkja; hvé of vélti belti þat? Hykk Hlǫkk hrammfjǫturs hvǫttu þat; fannkat rakka mey þá smjúga í raman bjalfa bjúgs barrskelfis.

We [I] stood beneath the broad girdle of the branch of the wind, giant of the fire of mail-shirts [SWORD > WARRIOR]; how did the ‘belt’ trick me? I think the Hlǫkk <valkyrie> of the arm-fetter [ARM-RING > WOMAN] encouraged that; I did not find the spirited woman creeping then into the strong hide of the bent pine needle shaker.

readings

[3] herkir: ‘[…]’ Hb, herkir 67aˣ, 67bˣ, 307ˣ, HbFms n. p., HbSnE, HbFJ

notes

[3] herkir hyrjar serkja ‘giant of the fire of mail-shirts [SWORD > WARRIOR]’: Guðmundur Finnbogason (1928, 223-4) assumes that the kenning refers to an unnamed servant who has locked the gate of the yard in which the poets were imprisoned overnight. Alternatively, it might be addressed to a fictitious bystander, or even refer to the poet himself if in apposition to vér ‘we [I]’. Herkir is recorded as a giant-name in Þul Jǫtna I 2/3III. Etymologically the noun means ‘devastator’ or ‘noise-maker’, and can also refer to fire (cf. LP: herkir; AEW: herkir; Note to Þul Jǫtna I 2/3III). A man-kenning (in this case specifically a warrior-kenning) with ‘giant’ as base-word is usually pejorative (cf. SnE 1998, I, 40), and this would be appropriate if the referent were a servant.

kennings

grammar

case: nom.

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