Bragi Rdr 10III/4 — glamma ‘wolves’
Letrat lýða stillir
landa vanr á sandi
— þá svall heipt í Hǫgna —
hǫðglamma mun stǫðva,
es þrymregin þremja
þróttig Heðin* sóttu,
heldr an Hildar svíra
hringa þeir of fingi.
Stillir lýða, vanr landa, letrat stǫðva mun hǫðglamma á sandi – þá svall heipt í Hǫgna –, es þróttig þremja þrymregin sóttu Heðin*, heldr an þeir of fingi hringa svíra Hildar.
The controller of men [RULER], lacking lands, does not hold back from stopping the desire of battle-wolves [WARRIORS] on the sand – then hatred swelled in Hǫgni –, when the enduring gods of the noise of sword-edges [(lit. ‘noise-gods of sword-edges’) BATTLE > WARRIORS] attacked Heðinn, rather than accept the rings of the neck of Hildr.
readings
[4] glamma: so all others, ‘‑glammrr’ apparently corrected from ‘‑glamms’ R
notes
[4] hǫðglamma ‘of battle-wolves [WARRIORS]’: The cpd hǫðglammi ‘battle-wolf’ (lit. ‘battle-howler’) is a hap. leg. Hǫð ‘battle’ does not occur as a simplex, but is found as constituent of the name of the god Hǫðr, while glammi is a wolf-heiti (cf. Þul Vargs 1/7). Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) construes hǫðglamma mun as three separate words, with hǫð, dat. or instr. of hǫð ‘battle’ being understood as an adverbial phrase ‘in battle’. Other eds have understood the cpd hǫðglamma differently, Kock taking it with mun (as a kenning) and lætrat stǫðva to mean ‘[Hǫgni] does not cause the desire of the battle-wolf [BATTLE] to stop’. Such a kenning is unprecedented. Reichardt (1928, 94-5 n. 26) interpreted hǫðglammi as a sword-kenning, part of a battle-kenning hǫðglamma mun ‘desire of the battle-wolf [SWORD > BATTLE]’. LP: hǫð, following a suggestion of Krause, proposed that hǫð could be acc. and glamma mun in apposition to it.
kennings
- hǫðglamma — of battle-wolves [WARRIORS]
grammar
case: gen.
number: pl.