Valg Har 11II/1 — beðja ‘layers’
Lauðr vas lagt í beðja;
lék sollit haf golli,
enn herskipum hrannir
hǫfuð ógurlig þógu.
Ræðr, en ræsir œðri
rístr aldri sæ kaldan,
— sveit tér sínum dróttni
snjǫll — Nóregi ǫllum.
Lauðr vas lagt í beðja; sollit haf lék golli, enn hrannir þógu ógurlig hǫfuð herskipum. Ræðr ǫllum Nóregi, en œðri ræsir rístr aldri kaldan sæ; snjǫll sveit tér dróttni sínum.
Foam was folded into layers; the swollen sea played with gold, and waves washed the terrifying heads of the warships. You rule all Norway, and a nobler regent will never carve the cold sea; the valiant company support their lord.
readings
[1] beðja: ‘bebi’ Mork, bæði Flat, H, Hr, R, C, ‘bedi’ Tˣ, B, beð A
notes
[1] beðja (m. acc. pl.) ‘layers’: The emendation beðja ‘layers’ is conjectural, but none of the variants allows for an adequate reading. Beðr ‘layer, bed, quilt’ is a m. ja-stem and the regular acc. pl. is beði, but the metre requires a long-stemmed disyllabic word in positions 5-6. Beðja could be an archaic form (Gmc *baðja-: see ANG §368; SnE 1998 I, 147, 216). Skj B connects beðja with golli (n. dat. sg.) ‘gold’ (l. 2) which is taken as a possessive dat. (Skummet fyldte guldets underlag ‘The foam filled the gold’s pad’), but in LP: beðr 2, Finnur suggests the (unattested) translation ‘long foaming breakers’ (lange skumbølger). Kock (NN §877) tentatively emends to beðjum (m. dat. pl.) which he translates as långa bäddar ‘long beds’. The idea seems to be that the foam formed layers, just like a down-quilt, covering the sea and making it ‘swollen’ (sollit haf (l. 2)). See also Indrebø 1928, 116-20.