Anon (FoGT) 24III/1 — Haki ‘Haki’
Haki Kraki
hoddum broddum
særði mærði
seggi leggi.
Veitir neitir
vella pella
báli stáli
beittiz heittiz.
Haki særði leggi broddum; Kraki mærði seggi hoddum. Veitir pella heittiz báli; neitir vella beittiz stáli.
Haki wounded legs with pikes; Kraki (‘Pole-ladder’) honoured men with treasures. The giver of costly materials [GENEROUS MAN = Haki] was burnt on a pyre; the squanderer of gold [GENEROUS MAN = Kraki] was killed by a steel weapon.
notes
[1] Haki: Name of a famous pirate or sea-king. The name can be used generally in poetry for a sea-king, but here there is a specific reference to the brother of the legendary Hagbarðr. Haki is mentioned in Ynglinga saga chs 22-3 (ÍF 26, 43-5) as a fierce and bellicose warrior, who killed Hugleikr, king of the Swedes, at Fyrisvellir ‘Plains by the Fyrisån’ (Fyris river) near Uppsala, assumed the kingship himself, and was later engaged in a second battle at Fyrisvellir, in which he was mortally wounded and placed at his own request on a pyre on board a burning ship, which was pushed out to sea. Cf. Note to Anon (SnE) 16/1. A rather different account of Haki’s death appears in Saxo 2005, I, 7, 8, 1-6, pp. 476-80.