R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2017, ‘Ásgrímr Jónsson, Lausavísa 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 12.
Láðs rupla fé fríðu
fornbauga hyrdraugar
sverða sœki-Njǫrðu
sér veslari heslis.
{{{Fornbauga heslis} hyr}draugar} rupla fríðu fé {sœki-Njǫrðu {láðs sverða}} veslari sér.
‘Trees of the fire of the hazel-tree of ancient rings [(lit. ‘fire-trees of the hazel-tree of ancient rings’) ARM > GOLD > MEN] are plundering splendid riches from attack-Nirðir <gods> of the land of swords [SHIELD > WARRIORS] poorer than themselves. ’
The helmingr is cited to illustrate how words for ‘tree’ and similar terms may be used in kennings designating men.
If the compiler understood -draugar ‘trees’ (lit. ‘(tree) trunks’) as the base-word referring to men (and this seems likely, as he offers draugr in the preceding prose as an example of this usage), the helmingr does illustrate the point. Heslis ‘of the hazel-tree’ could be misconstrued as such a base-word (and it is in LaufE), however, though it actually belongs to an (albeit unusual) arm-kenning (see Translation). — Kock (NN §1371) argues that láðs ‘of the land’ (l. 1) should be construed with hyrdraugar fornbauga ‘fire-trees of ancient rings’ (l. 2), yielding the sense ‘trees of the fire of the land of ancient rings [(lit. ‘fire-trees of the land of ancient-rings’) ARM > GOLD > MEN]’. As a consequence, heslis ‘of the hazel-tree’ (l. 4) must be construed with sœki-Njǫrðu sverða ‘attack-Njǫrðs of swords’ (l. 3), but this does not make for a very satisfactory kenning: sœki-Njǫrðu heslis sverða ‘attack-Nirðir of the hazel-tree of swords [WARRIOR > WARRIORS]’.
Text is based on reconstruction from the base text and variant apparatus and may contain alternative spellings and other normalisations not visible in the manuscript text. Transcriptions may not have been checked and should not be cited.
Lads rvpla fe fridv fornbauga herdraugar sverda sæ | ki niordv ser veslari heslis .
(RDF)
Ladz rupla fie frydu, fornbauga herdrauga | suerda sœki Nio᷎rdu, ser veslare hesliz. |
(RDF)
läds rupla fe frı̈du | forn bauga herdraugar | sverda sæki njordu | ser veslari heslis |
(RDF)
Laðs rupla fe friðu | fornbauga herdraugar | sverda sækiniorðu ser veslari heslis.
(RDF)
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