TorfE Lv 3I/6 — sôrum ‘the wounded’
Ey munk glaðr, síz geirar
— gótts vinna þrek manni —
bǫðfíkinna bragna
bitu þengils son ungan.
Þeygi dylk, nema þykki
— þar fló grár af sôrum
hræva nagr of holma —
hól undvala gœli.
Munk ey glaðr, síz geirar bǫðfíkinna bragna bitu ungan son þengils; gótts manni vinna þrek. Þeygi dylk, nema hól þykki gœli undvala; þar fló grár nagr hræva af sôrum of holma.
I will be forever glad now that spears of battle-keen men pierced the young son of the king [= Hálfdan]; it is good for a man to do a heroic deed. Not at all do I conceal the fact that it seems like vaunting to the comforter of wound-falcons [RAVENS/EAGLES > WARRIOR = Haraldr]; there the grey bird of corpses [EAGLE] flew from the wounded over the islands.
notes
[6] af sôrum ‘from the wounded’: Dat. pl. sôrum is here taken as a substantival use of the adj. sárr rather than part of the noun sár n. ‘wound’. Editors have commonly emended af to at, on the grounds that birds of carrion are more often spoken of as flying to corpses than from them (CPB II, 372; Finnur Jónsson 1884, 98; Skj B; Skald; ÍF 29). — [6] grár : sôrum: An instance of aðalhending: cf. Lv 5/2 seggr : skeggi and the Introduction.