[3-4] harðligt herkuml Heðins ‘the hard war token of Heðinn <legendary hero> [HELMET]’: The meaning of herkum(b)l is ‘war token’ (Fritzner: herkuml), ‘helmet’ (LP: herkum(b)l). Herkuml Heðins ‘the war token of Heðinn’ has the character of a kenning, although not listed by Meissner as such. Meissner does, however, mention herkumbl as a heiti for ‘helmet’, and lists kennings in which a famous hero’s headgear means ‘helmet’. In Ásm 10/7, where the same expression is used in the pl., herkumbl harðlig ‘hard war tokens’, its meaning is clearly ‘wounds’, but even in this instance it is closely associated with a helmet.
References
- Bibliography
- Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
- LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
- Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
- Internal references
- Peter Jorgensen (ed.) 2017, ‘Ásmundar saga kappabana 10 (Ásmundr kappabana, Lausavísur 4)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 23.