Hfr Óldr 4I/4 — austr ‘east’
Hilmir lét at Holmi
hræskóð roðin blóði
— hvat of dylði þess hǫlðar? —
hǫrð ok austr í Gǫrðum.
Rógs brá rekka lægir
ríkr Valkera líki;
herstefnir lét hrǫfnum
hold Flæmingja goldit.
Hilmir lét hǫrð hræskóð roðin blóði at Holmi ok austr í Gǫrðum; hvat of dylði þess hǫlðar? Ríkr lægir rógs rekka brá líki Valkera; herstefnir lét hold Flæmingja goldit hrǫfnum.
The prince caused hard corpse-harmers [SWORDS] to be reddened in blood at Hólmr and east in Russia; why should men conceal that? The powerful subduer of the strife of men [JUST RULER] spoiled the bodies of the Valkerar; the army-commander [RULER] caused the flesh of the Flemings to be doled out to ravens.
notes
[1-4]: Hkr and ÓT, citing this helmingr, attribute it explicitly to a drápa composed by Hallfreðr about King Óláfr; cf. Note to st. 2/5-8. The lines are problematic from a historical and geographical point of view, since if at Holmi in l. 1 refers to Bornholm (see Note), Óláfr seems to proceed from there eastwards to north-west Russia (ok austr í Gǫrðum, l. 4). The helmingr is placed in Hkr at the beginning of Óláfr’s career, when he is setting out westwards from Russia (see Introduction for Contexts), but this is counter to its internal ordering (and Finnur Jónsson inserts för ‘before’ into his translation in Skj B, to signal an earlier episode; cf. also Hkr 1893-1901, IV). The positioning of the stanza in the continuous poetic sequence in Fsk and 310, meanwhile, with the raids on Bornholm and Russia following those on the Saxar and Frísar, seems to imply a very large diversion to the east, as well, seemingly, as a return by Óláfr to harry the Russian territory he was raised in. However, the general direction in Fsk and 310 is consistent, and winds, tides and opportunity may well have been stronger imperatives to these highly mobile raiders than the logic of distance.