Eil Frag 1III/4 — banda ‘of the gods’
Setbergs kveða sitja
sunnr at Urðar brunni;
svá hefr ramr konungr remðan
Róms banda sik lǫndum.
Kveða sitja setbergs sunnr at brunni Urðar; svá hefr ramr konungr Róms remðan sik lǫndum banda.
They say that [he, Christ] sits on a seat-shaped crag in the south at the well of Urðr <norn>; thus the strong king of Rome [CHRIST] has strengthened himself in the lands of the gods.
notes
[4] lǫndum banda ‘in the lands of the gods’: Bǫnd n. pl. is a term for the heathen gods who protect the land from evil, and they seem to have had a special connection to the jarls of Lade (ON Hlaðir); see Marold (1992, 705-7) and Note to Eskál Vell 8/2I. Eilífr was a skald at the court of Hákon jarl Sigurðarson, and there are several indications that his Þdr was a praise poem to Hákon jarl (see Introduction to Þdr). Therefore lǫndum banda most likely refers to Norway, till then still heathen, and in particular to those parts of Norway under the domain of the jarls of Lade (cf. Tindr Hákdr 7/7, 8I, where Norway is called mǫrk heiðins dóms ‘forest of heathendom’).