Bragi Frag 6III/2 — rǫdd ‘to the voice’
Þann áttak vin verstan
vazt- rǫdd en mér baztan
Ála -undirkúlu
óniðraðan þriðja.
Áttak þann vin þriðja óniðraðan, verstan rǫdd Ála vazt-undirkúlu en baztan mér.
I had that friend, the third one, blameless, worst to the voice of the Áli <sea-king> of the fishing ground-under-knob [ROCK > GIANT > GOLD], but best to me.
readings
[2] vazt rǫdd: ‘vatzravðla’ R, ‘vazraud’ Tˣ, ‘uaz rodd’ W, ‘[…]atzt rodd’ U
notes
[2] rǫdd ‘the voice’: The majority mss and the prose context indicate rǫdd is to be preferred over R’s rǫðli < rǫðull ‘wheel, disk’, as do metrical considerations. However, Skald adopts the cpd vatzrǫðli ‘water-sun [GOLD]’, construing it with l. 1 áttak þann vin verstan vatzrǫðli ‘I had that friend worst to water-sun [GOLD]’. — [2, 3] rǫdd Ála ‘the voice of Áli <sea-king> [GOLD]’: A kenning for ‘gold’ formed against the mythological background indicated by Snorri’s prose text. Áli is elsewhere given as the name for a variety of supernatural beings and humans of the prehistoric period (cf. LP: Áli; SnE 1998, II, 443). Connection with a sea-king of this name (cf. SnE 1998, I, 109 and Note to Þul Sækonunga 1/2) seems most likely here. Kock (NN §222) argues that ála is gen. pl. of áll ‘deep narrow channel in sea or river’ and that undirkúlu ála ‘under-knob of channels’ is a kenning concealing the name Steinn ‘Stone’ for Bragi’s unnamed friend.
kennings
- rǫdd Ála vazt-undirkúlu — to the voice of the Áli <sea-king> of the fishing ground-under-knob, [GOLD]
grammar
case: dat.