Bragi Rdr 9III/7 — ulfs ‘of a wolf [Fenrir]’
Bauða sú til bleyði
bœti-Þrúðr at móti
malma mætum hilmi
men dreyrugra benja.
Svá lét ey, þótt etti,
sem orrostu letti,
jǫfrum ulfs at sinna
með algífris lifru.
Sú bœti-Þrúðr dreyrugra benja bauða mætum hilmi men til bleyði at móti malma. Svá lét ey, sem letti orrostu, þótt etti jǫfrum at sinna með lifru algífris ulfs.
That curing-Þrúðr <goddess> of bloody wounds [VALKYRIE = Hildr] did not offer the splendid ruler the neck-ring for the sake of cowardice at the assembly of weapons [BATTLE]. Thus she continually behaved as if she was hindering the battle, although she was inciting the princes to accompany the sister of the complete monster of a wolf [Fenrir] [= Hel].
notes
[7-8] at sinna með lifru algífris ulfs ‘to accompany the sister of the complete monster of a wolf [Fenrir] [= Hel]’: The general sense of the lines is that Hildr incited the princes (Hǫgni and Heðinn) to join the company of Hel, guardian of the dead and the underworld, that is, she egged them on to their deaths. Hel was one of three monstrous offspring of the god Loki, another of whom was the wolf, Fenrir, referred to here. The status of the word algífris ‘completely monstrous’ (l. 8) is debated. It is here understood as a descriptive gen. of algífri ‘complete monster’ (so SnE 1998, II, 233), taken with ulfs (l. 7), so ‘of the complete monster of a wolf’. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) takes ulfs with lifru ‘sister’ (l. 8) and construes til at rejse til det fuldkomne uhyre, ulvens søster ‘to travel to the complete monster, the wolf’s sister’. Kock (NN §193, though not in Skald) takes algífris with lifru to form a cpd, construing ulfs algífrislifru ‘the wolf’s very monstrous sister’.
kennings
- lifru algífris ulfs. — the sister of the complete monster of a wolf [Fenrir]. [= Hel]