Þorm Lv 24I/8 — hríðar ‘of the blizzard’
Emka rjóðr, en rauðum
ræðr grǫnn Skǫgul manni
hauka setrs in hvíta;
hyggr fár of mik sáran.
Hitt veldr mér, at meldrar
morðvenjanda Fenju
djúp ok danskra vápna
Dags hríðar spor svíða.
Emka rjóðr, en grǫnn Skǫgul in hvíta setrs hauka ræðr rauðum manni; fár hyggr of mik sáran. Hitt veldr mér, at djúp spor hríðar Dags ok danskra vápna svíða morðvenjanda meldrar Fenju.
I am not ruddy, but the slender, white Skǫgul <valkyrie> of the seat of hawks [ARM > WOMAN] gives orders to a red [blood-stained] man; few think about me, wounded. This is the cause to me [of my pallor], that the deep tracks of the blizzard of Dagr <legendary king> and of Danish weapons [BATTLE > WOUNDS] cause pain to the killing-accustomed one of the flour of Fenja <giantess> [GOLD > GENEROUS MAN = Þormóðr].
notes
[8] hríðar Dags ‘of the blizzard of Dagr <legendary king> [BATTLE]’: Finnur Jónsson (1932-3) and Gordon (1957, 239) take this to be a reference to Dagr Hringsson (see Lv 22), as this is apparently how Snorri understood it, for twice he refers to the fiercest part of the battle as Dagshríð (hríð being a phase in a battle), in the context of narrating Dagr’s manoeuvres (ÍF 27, 386, 389). This is implausible, for hríðar Dags would appear to be a normal heroic kenning, and Þormóðr can hardly mean that he was wounded in a shower of missiles launched by one of the leaders on the king’s (and his own) side. Von See (1977b, 467-71) shows that this misunderstanding of the helmingr was already common by Snorri’s day. ÍF 27, 391 n. accepts Snorri’s testimony about Dagshríð but, recognizing the improbability that the term could then have been used by Þormóðr, adopts the unlikely reading dals hríðar ‘bow’s blizzard’ from Kˣ (cf. dal- in Holm2).
kennings
- hríðar Dags — of the blizzard of Dagr <legendary king> [BATTLE]
- djúp spor hríðar Dags ok danskra vápna — the deep tracks of the blizzard of Dagr <legendary king> and of Danish weapons [WOUNDS]
grammar
case: gen.