Eil Þdr 14III/5 — fasta ‘a tight spot’
þars í þróttarhersa
Þornranns hugumbornir
— hlymr varð hellis Kumra —
hringbalka* framm gingu.
List* vas fœrðr í fasta
— friðsein vas þar — hreina
gnípu hlǫðr á greypan
gránhǫtt risa kvánar.
þars hugumbornir gingu framm í hringbalka* þróttarhersa Þornranns; hlymr Kumra hellis varð. Hlǫðr hreina gnípu vas list* fœrðr í fasta á greypan gránhǫtt kvánar risa; þar vas friðsein.
when the courageous ones went forwards into the circular rooms of the strength-hersar of the house of Þorn <giant> [CAVE > GIANTS]; the din of the Cumbrians of the cave [GIANTS] arose. The vanquisher of the reindeer of the peak [GIANTS > = Þórr] was cunningly brought into a tight spot upon the horrible grey hat of the wife of the giant [GIANTESS]; there was a prevention of peace.
notes
[5] fœrðr í fasta ‘brought into a tight spot’: Fasti is only rarely attested in the meaning ‘tight spot’ (see LP: 2. fasti); it may be a nominal derivation (m. n-stem) from the adj. fastr ‘solid, tight’. The sense of the noun can only be deduced from the context of the prose narrative in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 25), which tells how Þórr is pressed against the roof by the two daughters of Geirrøðr crouching under his chair. — [5] vas list* fœrðr í fasta ‘was cunningly brought into a tight spot’: The main clause lacks a finite verb, and earlier eds (Finnur Jónsson 1900b, 393; Skj B; NN §461) supply vas ‘was’, which has been adopted in the present edn. However, that emendation makes the line too long (seven syllables); hence ‘listi’ (so all mss) has been emended to list* here, dat. of list f. ‘cunning, skill’. Listi (all mss) can only be the nom. Listi, the name of a peninsula in Vest-Agder, the southernmost part of Norway, which cannot be acommodated syntactically in this clause. Other eds (Finnur Jónsson 1900b, 393; Skj B; NN §461) emend Listi to Lista gen. sg. and include the p. n. as a redundant element in the giant-kenning hreina gnípu ‘of the reindeer of the peak’, but that still leaves a hypermetrical line. The same objection can be made to Reichardt (1948, 374), who takes listi as the dat. (perhaps even with an emendation to listum dat. pl.).