Eil Þdr 21III/3 — af
Herblótinn vá hneitir
hógbrotningi skógar
undirfjalfrs af alfi
alfheims bliku kalfa,
né liðfǫstum Lista
látrs val-Rygir môttu
aldrminkanda aldar
Ellu steins of bella.
Herblótinn hneitir kalfa undirfjalfrs bliku alfheims vá hógbrotningi skógar af alfi; né môttu Rygir Lista vallátrs of bella liðfǫstum aldrminkanda aldar Ellu steins.
The people-worshipped vanquisher of the calves of the low hiding-place of the gleam of the elf-world [SUN > CAVE > GIANTS > = Þórr] fought vigorously with the handy weapon of the forest; nor could the Rygir of the Lista of the falcon-lair [(lit. ‘falcon-Rygir of the lair of Lista’) ROCK > MOUNTAINS > GIANTS] resist the life-diminisher of the people of the Ælla <Northumbrian king> of the stone [GIANT > GIANTS > = Þórr], support-strong.
readings
[3] af: at W
notes
[3] af alfi ‘vigorously’: Finnur Jónsson (1900b, 400) preferred the reading of Tˣ ‘af afli’ but that fails to produce the hending in l. 3. Reichardt (1948, 390) therefore proposed keeping the reading af alfi (R, W). He suggested that alf was a secondary form of afl, caused by metathesis of ƀl, fl to lƀ, lf (cf. ANG §313.1), which the poet resorted to in order to form a correct hending. The present edn follows Reichardt here.