Þjóð Haustl 19III/3 — hjarna ‘of his brain’
Ok harðbrotin herju
heimþingaðar Vingnis
hvein í hjarna mœni
hein at Grundar sveini,
þar svát eðr í Óðins
ólaus burar hausi
stála vikr of stokkin*
stóð Eindriða blóði,
Ok harðbrotin hein heimþingaðar herju Vingnis hvein at sveini Grundar í mœni hjarna, svát vikr stála, eðr ólaus í hausi burar Óðins, stóð þar, of stokkin* blóði Eindriða,
And the hard-broken whetstone of the home-visitor of the female follower of Vingnir <giant> [GIANTESS > GIANT = Hrungnir] flew whining towards the boy of Grund <= Jǫrð> [= Þórr] into the roof-ridge of his brain [SKULL], so that the pumice of steel weapons [WHETSTONE], still stuck in the skull of the son of Óðinn [= Þórr], stood there, spattered with the blood of Eindriði <= Þórr>,
readings
[3] hjarna: ‘hinka’ R, Tˣ, hina W
notes
[3] í mœni hjarna ‘into the roof-ridge of his brain [SKULL]’: The determinant of this unusual kenning is not certain; both R and Tˣ have the meaningless ‘hinka’, while W has ‘hina’. The emendation to hjarna ‘brain’, based on W’s reading and assuming that the scribe failed to copy a superscript ‘ar’ abbreviation in his exemplar, has been adopted by all eds. It is possible, as Marold (1983, 174) has suggested, that W’s ‘hina’ might have stood for hinna, a rare word, meaning a membrane or skin, otherwise used in poetry only in the C14th Anon Pét 4/6VII. The base-word mœnir means the ridge of a roof, and is used here pars pro toto for ‘roof’.
kennings
- mœni hjarna, — the roof-ridge of his brain, [SKULL]