Arn Þorfdr 16II/7 — kind ‘the descendant’
Enn vas, sús Engla minnir,
egghríð, né mun síðan
hôr við helming meira
hringdrífr koma þingat.
Bitu sverð, en þar þurði,
þunngǫr, fyr Mǫn sunnan
Rǫgnvalds kind, und randir
ramlig folk, ins gamla.
Enn vas egghríð, sús Engla minnir, né mun hôr hringdrífr síðan koma þingat við meira helming. Þunngǫr sverð bitu ramlig folk und randir, en kind Rǫgnvalds ins gamla þurði þar fyr sunnan Mǫn.
Then came the edge-blizzard [BATTLE] which the English remember, and never after will a lofty ring-strewer [GENEROUS RULER] come there with a larger force. Slender-wrought swords bit the mighty troops beneath their shields, and the descendant of Rǫgnvaldr inn gamli (‘the Old’) [= Þorfinnr] rushed forth there south of Man.
notes
[5, 7] kind Rǫgnvalds … þurði ‘the descendant of Rǫgnvaldr [= Þorfinnr] … rushed forth’: The role of the noun phrases ramlig(t) folk ‘mighty troop/troops’ (l. 8) and kind Rǫgnvalds ‘the descendant of Rǫgnvaldr’ is ambiguous: each could be nom., the subject of þurðu/þurði ‘rushed’, or acc., object of bitu sverð ‘swords bit’. However, the hero Þorfinnr is more likely to be depicted rushing forward than being pierced by swords, and so þurði is adopted here with the kind-phrase as its subject. (b) Finnbogi Guðmundsson (ÍF 34, 61 n.) suggested that kind was dat., hence presumably bitu sverð kind Rǫgnvalds ‘swords bit for Rǫgnvaldr’s descendant’ (and cf. Faulkes in SnE 1998, I, 206). But there is nothing in the syntax to show that kind is not acc. sg., which would yield the sense that the hero was wounded, so this seems unlikely. (c) It appears that the scribes of mss Tˣ and W, and probably of U and Flat, took ‘mighty troop’ as the subject of ‘rushed’, since the two mss (Tˣ and W) which read pl. þurðu also have pl. ramlig folk, while the two (U and Flat) which read sg. þurði also have sg. ramligt folk. Skj B adopts þurðu and ramlig folk. (d) The variant þorði ‘dared’ (so R702ˣ) could make sense, but the ms. evidence is against it. — [7, 8] kind Rǫgnvalds ins gamla ‘the descendant of Rǫgnvaldr inn gamli (“the Old”) [= Þorfinnr]’: Rǫgnvaldr is called inn ríki ok inn ráðsvinni ‘the powerful and wise-counselled’ in Orkn ch. 3 (ÍF 34, 7), never inn gamli, which may be designed to distinguish him from Rǫgnvaldr Brúsason; see further Note to st. 2/4.
kennings
- kind Rǫgnvalds ins gamla — the descendant of Rǫgnvaldr inn gamli (‘the Old’) [= Þorfinnr]
grammar
case: nom.