Sigv Austv 9I/3 — vási ‘a drenching storm’
Kátr vask opt, þás úti
ǫrðigt veðr á fjǫrðum
vísa segl í vási
vindblásit skóf Strinda.
Hestr óð kafs at kostum;
kilir ristu men Lista,
út þás eisa létum
undan skeiðr at sundi.
Vask opt kátr, þás ǫrðigt veðr úti á fjǫrðum skóf vindblásit segl vísa Strinda í vási. Hestr kafs óð at kostum; kilir ristu men Lista, þás létum skeiðr eisa undan út at sundi.
I was often cheerful when a harsh wind out in the fjords raked the wind-blown sail of the ruler of the Strindir [NORWEGIAN KING = Óláfr] in a drenching storm. The horse of the deep [SHIP] advanced at a fine pace; the keels cleft the necklace of Lista [SEA] when we let the warships dash away out at sea.
notes
[3] í vási ‘in a drenching storm’: Vás means ‘wetness, toil, fatigue, from storm, sea, frost, bad weather, or the like’ (CVC: vás), but some of the examples show that vás may simply refer to adverse weather (as a cause of fatigue). Í vási can be variously construed. (a) It is taken here with the subordinate clause (so also Kock, NN §1861; Jón Skaptason 1983, 90). (b) Taking it in the sense ‘in a storm’ in the main, initial clause is also satisfactory, providing a reference to stormy weather in each clause, though the word order is more complex. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) adopted this arrangement, following Ternström (1871). He seems to have understood vás as describing Sigvatr’s condition, rather than the weather (cf. LP: vás, defining it as strabadser ‘fatigue, toils’).