Hfr ErfÓl 6I/3 — svarðar ‘of the scalp’
Herskerðir klauf harðan
— hann gekk reiðr of skeiðar —
svarðar stofn með sverði
sunnr eldviðum kunnum.
Kunni gramr at gunni
— gunnþinga jarnmunnum
margr lá heggr of hǫggvinn —
holdbarkar rô sarka.
Herskerðir klauf harðan stofn svarðar kunnum eldviðum með sverði sunnr; hann gekk reiðr of skeiðar. Gramr kunni sarka rô holdbarkar at gunni; margr heggr Gunnþinga lá of hǫggvinn jarnmunnum.
The army-diminisher [RULER] split the hard stump of the scalp [HEAD] of famous sword-trees [WARRIORS] with a sword in the south; he went angry through the warships. The prince knew how to redden the yard-arm of flesh-bark [MAIL-SHIRT > SWORD] in battle; many a cherry-tree of meetings of Gunnr <valkyrie> [BATTLES > WARRIOR] lay chopped down by iron mouths.
readings
notes
[3] svarðar ‘of the scalp’: (a) This is a long-established emendation of ms. ‘suafdar’, already adopted in Árni Magnússon’s copy of this stanza in 761bˣ. It provides a conventional kenning for ‘head’, stofn svarðar ‘stump of the scalp’, cf. strǫnd svarðar ‘shore of the scalp’ RvHbreiðm Hl 32/8III, hjalmstofn ‘helmet-stump’ GSúrs Lv 34/8V(Gísl 37). It also supplies conventionally positioned hendingar, as the viðrhending (second part of an internal rhyme) is sverð-, the penultimate syllable in the line, rather than stofn, the third (see Kuhn 1983, 85). (b) ‘Suafdar’ in both mss is not readily explained. It could be the f. nom./acc. pl. of the p. p. of svefja ‘to lull to sleep’, or perhaps some other derivative of the root *seu- (AEW: svefn), referring to sleep, putting to sleep, or killing (cf. Note to Þul Óðins 4/3III on the Óðinn-name Sváfnir), but no solution along these lines fits the syntax, semantics and metre of the helmingr as preserved, and the emendation stands.
kennings
- harðan stofn svarðar — the hard stump of the scalp [HEAD]