Bragi Rdr 5III/2 — sá ‘the vat’
Þar, svát gerðu gyrðan
golfhǫlkvis sá fylkis,
segls naglfara siglur
saums andvanar standa.
Urðu snemst ok Sǫrli
samráða þeir Hamðir
hǫrðum herðimýlum
Hergauts vinu barðir.
Þar, svát gerðu gyrðan sá golfhǫlkvis fylkis, standa siglur segls naglfara, andvanar saums. Þeir Sǫrli ok Hamðir urðu snemst barðir samráða hǫrðum herðimýlum vinu Hergauts.
There, so that they encircled the vat of the floor-steed [HOUSE > BED] of the ruler, the masts of the sail of the nail-studded one <ship’s planking> [SHIELD > WARRIORS], lacking nails, stand. Sǫrli and Hamðir were very soon pelted by common resolve with hard shoulder-lumps of the mistress of Hergautr <= Óðinn> [= Jǫrð (jǫrð ‘earth’) > STONES].
notes
[2] sá golfhǫlkvis ‘the vat of the floor-steed [HOUSE > BED]’: Some commentators (e.g. Dronke 1969, 211-12) have understood sá as the 3rd pers. pret. sg. of the verb sjá ‘see’, but this requires emendation of ‑hǫlkvis to ‑hǫlkvi and adoption of R’s and Tˣ’s fylkir ‘ruler’ as subject of the clause. A majority of scholars, including the present ed., understand sá as acc. sg. of sár m. ‘vessel, tub, vat’, forming the base-word of a tvíkent bed-kenning. Golfhǫlkvir ‘floor-steed’ is then a house-kenning (cf. Meissner 430-1), referring to Jǫrmunrekkr’s hall. Hǫlkvir occurs as a horse-heiti in several contexts (e.g. Akv 30/7, SnE 1998, I, 89, Anon Kálfv 4/5, where it refers to the hero Hǫgni’s horse). Kock (NN §1916) regards hǫlkvir as a ship-heiti, and it is possible that the word could have had both senses (AEW: hǫlkvir). Bed-kennings are uncommon in skaldic verse, and sár, with its probably mundane associations, is never used elsewhere in the corpus (see LP: sár). Bragi is likely to have chosen it at least partly a) for metrical reasons (Gade 1995a, 29-30); b) because it extends the metaphor of the verb gyrða ‘encircle’ (with a band or hoop); and c) because it connotes a vessel containing liquid, the implicit parallel being with Jǫrmunrekkr’s maimed and bleeding body, shorn of arms and legs. Marold (1994c, 569-71), however, sees the referent of sár as Jǫrmunrekkr’s sleeping chamber, formed from planks of wood.
kennings
- sá golfhǫlkvis — the vat of the floor-steed [BED]
grammar
case: acc.