ÞjóðA Sex 27II/7 — holdi ‘with flesh’
Ǫrð sær Yrsu burðar
inndrótt jǫfurr sinni
bjartplógaðan bauga
brattakr vǫluspakra.
Eyss landreki ljósu
lastvarr Kraka barri
á hlæmyldar holdi
hauks kǫlfur mér sjǫlfum.
Jǫfurr sær ǫrð burðar Yrsu bjartplógaðan brattakr vǫluspakra bauga inndrótt sinni. Lastvarr landreki eyss ljósu barri Kraka mér sjǫlfum á kǫlfur hauks, hlæmyldar holdi.
The prince sows with the grain of the offspring of Yrsa [= Hrólfr kraki > GOLD] the bright-ploughed steep field of joint-calm rings [ARM] of his retinue. The fault-shunning land-ruler sprinkles bright barley of Kraki (‘Pole-ladder’) <legendary king> [GOLD] on my own territories of the hawk [ARMS], warmly soil-covered with flesh.
notes
[7] hlæmyldar holdi ‘warmly soil-covered with flesh’: This adjectival phrase evidently qualifies the arm-kenning kǫlfur hauks ‘territories of the hawk’. Although only U(31r) has hlæ- and only U(44r) has -myld-, both readings constitute the lectio difficilior, and provide an unusual but acceptable image. Myldr could be a derivative of mold ‘soil’, hence myldar holdi ‘soil-covered with flesh’ (myldar f. acc. pl. agreeing with kǫlfur ‘territories’). Hlær ‘warm’ describes the flesh, reinforcing the referent ‘arm’ rather than the metaphorical ‘territories’, but it is here translated adverbially, as ‘warmly’, as an analogue to the fact that it is compounded with myldr. (b) The majority, and more obvious, reading hlémildr ‘shelter-generous’ is difficult to account for, unless by Faulkes’ suggestion hlémildrar holdi ‘shelter-generous ... (of arms), providing a place for flesh to sit’ (SnE 1998, II, 312); but surely flesh shelters the arms rather than the reverse.