Note to Kolb Jónv 3VII
[3-4] særir sundhyrs ‘wounder of strait-fire [GOLD > GENEROUS MAN]’: The ms. reading is ‘sęrar’, which Bugge normalises to særar. This would be a nom. pl. of særir ‘sower’ and the base-word of a conventional man-kenning. Such a pl. særar sundhyrs ‘sowers of the strait-fire [GOLD > GENEROUS MEN]’, would be a vocative addressing the audience of the poem. Konráð Gíslason argues that it is implausible that a statement addressed directly to John (cf. þik ‘you’ 3/2) should contain an expression addressed directly to the audience of the poem as well. Since all the other sts quoted are addressed to John, Konráð Gíslason regards ‘sęrar’ = (særar) as a scribal error and suggests emendation to the sg. særir ‘sower’: the kenning særir sundhyrs ‘sower of the strait-fire [GOLD > GENEROUS MAN]’ would then be a term addressed to John, as in the case of the synonymous kenning díks dagrennir ‘mover of the day of the ditch [GOLD > GENEROUS MAN]’ in 3/7-8.