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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Þorm Lv 11I/6 — ungr ‘young’

Flestr of sér, hvé fasta
fagrbúnar hefk túna
báðar hendr ór breiðum
barðs þjóðkonungs garði.
Eld ák jǫfri gjalda
ungr þeim, es bregðr hungri,
djúps, (berk goll á greipum)
grôðugs ara (bôðum).

Flestr of sér, hvé hefk báðar hendr fagrbúnar fasta túna barðs ór breiðum garði þjóðkonungs. Ungr ák gjalda þeim jǫfri eld djúps, es bregðr hungri grôðugs ara; berk goll á bôðum greipum.

Most people see how I have both arms finely equipped with the fire of the homesteads of the prow [SEA > GOLD] from the spacious court of the mighty king. [While] young, I have to pay the prince for the flame of the deep [GOLD], who terminates the hunger of the greedy eagle; I bear gold on both hands.

notes

[6] ungr ‘[while] young’: Remarks on youthfulness are common, even conventional, in skaldic poetry. Þormóðr may in fact have been in his early thirties at this point in his life (cf. Lv 16/5, 7, 8). Emendation to dat. ungum was proposed by Valdimar Ásmundarson (Fbr 1899, 161). This would qualify jǫfri ‘prince’, in reference to Knútr, who was probably younger, as well as providing an extra syllable and allowing þeim es to contract to þeims, as is more usual. However, ungum would be unmetrical.

grammar

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