Hfr Hákdr 1III/4 — brumaðr ‘budded’
Askþollum stendr Ullar
austr at miklu trausti
rœkilundr inn ríki
randfárs brumaðr hári.
Inn ríki rœkilundr randfárs, brumaðr hári, stendr Ullar askþollum at miklu trausti austr.
The mighty heeding-tree of shield-harm [SWORD > WARRIOR], budded with hair, stands in firm support of firs of Ullr’s <god’s> ship [(lit. ‘Ullr’s ship-firs’) SHIELD > WARRIORS] in the east.
readings
[4] brumaðr: ‘bry[…]r’ U, ‘brvmar’ A
notes
[4] brumaðr hári ‘budded with hair’: The verb bruma ‘bud’ is otherwise unknown, but brum n. ‘buds, shoots; (in later prose) beginnings’ (ONP: 1 brum 1-2; LP: brum) and brumr m. ‘point in time’ (ONP, LP: brumr) are fairly well attested. As Finnur Jónsson (LP: hár n.) points out, this is an extended metaphor, in which Hákon is a tree, whose buds are his hair. This organic metaphor thus includes his relationship to his subjects, who are called þollar ‘firs’: the mighty tree shelters them. Davidson (1983, 469-71) suggests this is also an image of dynastic fruitfulness, traditionally symbolised by luxuriant hair (cf. Hálfdan svarti’s dream, ÍF 26, 90-1). The sense of a beginning inherent in brumaðr ‘budded’ could be regarded as appropriate to the opening section of the poem, though there is no external evidence to support such a placement of this helmingr.