Rv Lv 13II/4 — slíðr ‘scabbard’
Lætr of ǫxl, sás útar,
aldrœnn, stendr á tjaldi,
sig-Freyr Svǫlnis Vára
slíðrvǫnd ofan ríða.
Eigi mun, þótt œgir
ǫrbeiðanda reiðisk,
bríkruðr bǫðvar* jǫkla
beinrangr framar ganga.
Aldrœnn sig-Freyr, sás stendr útar á tjaldi, lætr slíðrvǫnd Svǫlnis Vára ríða ofan of ǫxl. Beinrangr bǫðvar* jǫkla bríkruðr mun eigi ganga framar, þótt œgir ǫrbeiðanda reiðisk.
The elderly battle-Freyr <= god> [WARRIOR] who stands further out on the tapestry lets his scabbard-wand of Svǫlnir’s <= Óðinn’s> Várs <goddesses> [VALKYRIES > SWORD] swing down from his shoulder. The bandy-legged tree of the plank of the glaciers of battle [(lit. ‘plank-tree of the glaciers of battle’) SWORDS > SHIELD > WARRIOR] will not go further forward even if the threatener of arrow-requesters [WARRIORS > WARRIOR] gets angry.
notes
[4] slíðrvǫnd ‘scabbard-wand’: LP translates this as frygtelig vånd ‘dreadful wand’ (similarly Poole 2006, 148). While this meaning of slíðr (as a compounding epithet) predominates in earlier poetry, the meaning ‘scabbard’ is better attested in the C12th, including several examples in Rǫgnvaldr’s own poetry (st. 17 below; RvHbreiðm Hl 18, 71, 74III), both as a simplex and in kennings. Admittedly, the resulting kenning is imperfect, as it contains an extra determinant, Svǫlnis Vára ‘Svǫlnir’s Várs’, and Poole’s solution remains a possibility.
kennings
- slíðrvǫnd Svǫlnis Vára — his scabbard-wand of Svǫlnir’s <= Óðinn’s> Várs <goddesses> [SWORD]