Note to Arn Þorfdr 16^II

[5, 7] kind Rǫgnvalds … þurði ‘the descendant of Rǫgnvaldr [= Þorfinnr] … rushed forth’: The role of the noun phrases ramlig(t) folk ‘mighty troop/troops’ (l. 8) and kind Rǫgnvalds ‘the descendant of Rǫgnvaldr’ is ambiguous: each could be nom., the subject of þurðu/þurði ‘rushed’, or acc., object of bitu sverð ‘swords bit’. However, the hero Þorfinnr is more likely to be depicted rushing forward than being pierced by swords, and so þurði is adopted here with the kind-phrase as its subject. (b) Finnbogi Guðmundsson (ÍF 34, 61 n.) suggested that kind was dat., hence presumably bitu sverð kind Rǫgnvalds ‘swords bit for Rǫgnvaldr’s descendant’ (and cf. Faulkes in SnE 1998, I, 206). But there is nothing in the syntax to show that kind is not acc. sg., which would yield the sense that the hero was wounded, so this seems unlikely. (c) It appears that the scribes of mss Tˣ and W, and probably of U and Flat, took ‘mighty troop’ as the subject of ‘rushed’, since the two mss (Tˣ and W) which read pl. þurðu also have pl. ramlig folk, while the two (U and Flat) which read sg. þurði also have sg. ramligt folk. Skj B adopts þurðu and ramlig folk. (d) The variant þorði ‘dared’ (so R702ˣ) could make sense, but the ms. evidence is against it.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. ÍF 34 = Orkneyinga saga. Ed. Finnbogi Guðmundsson. 1965.
4. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.