[5] flærð fjǫrnis ‘deceit of the helmet [BATTLE]’: The base-word of this battle-kenning is unusual, but cf. Kári Lv 4/6V (Nj 49) malmróg ‘metal-slander’. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B), followed by Kock (Skald), reads norn skjaldar kom flærð at fjǫrni ‘the norn of the shield brought ruin to the helmet’, but this requires emendation of fjǫrnis to fjǫrni and an apparently unparalleled sense of flærð f., which is normally ‘deceit, falsehood, sin’.
References
- Bibliography
- Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
- Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- Internal references
- R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2022, ‘Njáls saga 49 (Kári Sǫlmundarson, Lausavísur 4)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1290.