Eil Þdr 19III/3 — und ‘under’
Bifðisk hǫll, þás hǫfði
Heiðreks of kom breiðu
und fletbjarnar fornan
fótlegg Þrasis veggjar.
Ítr gulli laust Ullar
jótrs vegtaugar þrjóti
meina niðr í miðjan
mest bígyrðil nestum.
Hǫll bifðisk, þás of kom breiðu hǫfði Heiðreks veggjar Þrasis und fornan fótlegg fletbjarnar. Ítr gulli Ullar laust mest nestum meina niðr í miðjan bígyrðil þrjóti jótrs vegtaugar.
The hall shook when [he] brought the broad head of the Heiðrekr <legendary king> of the wall of Þrasir <dwarf> [STONE > GIANT = Geirrøðr] under the old leg of the bench-bear [HOUSE > PILLAR]. The glorious stepfather of Ullr <god> [= Þórr] struck the provisions of harm [PIECE OF IRON] with full force down into the middle of the girdle of the defier of the molar of the way of the fishing-line [SEA > STONE > GIANT].
notes
[3-4] und fornan legg fletbjarnar ‘under the old leg of the bench-bear [HOUSE > PILLAR]’: This periphrasis is a nýgerving with the house-kenning ‘bench-bear’ as the determinant. Houses are sometimes referred to in kennings as animals (Meissner 430); in this case the base-word is ‘bear’, cf. fletvargr ‘bench-wolf’ (Anon (FoGT) 4/4). The resulting nýgerving means ‘pillar’, drawing on the analogy between an animal’s foot and the pillar of a house. The attributive adj. forn ‘old’ probably reflects the notion that giants were very old (Schulz 2004, 60-1; see Note to st. 15/7, 8 above); hence their age carried over to the objects associated with them.