Rv Lv 7II/8 — Gauta ‘of the Gautar’
Hengik hamri kringðan
(hanga rjúfum) tangar
(Grímnis sylg) á galga
ginnungs brúar linna.
Svá hefr glóraddar gladdan,
gagfellis, mik þella,
lóns, at leikk við mínar
lautir, hellis Gauta.
Hengik linna brúar ginnungs, kringðan hamri, á galga tangar; rjúfum sylg Grímnis hanga. Þella glóraddar Gauta hellis hefr gladdan mik svá, at leikk við mínar lautir gagfellis lóns.
I hang a snake of the bridge of the hawk [ARM > ARM-RING], made round by the hammer, on the gallows of the tongs [ARM]; we [I] reveal the drink of the Grímnir <giant> of hanged ones [= Óðinn > POETRY]. The fir-tree of the gleaming-voice of the Gautar of the cave [GIANTS > GOLD > WOMAN] has gladdened me so much, that I play with my hollows of the backward-bending feller of the lagoon [OAR > HANDS].
readings
[8] Gauta: gaura R702ˣ
notes
[5, 6, 8] þella glóraddar Gauta hellis ‘the fir-tree of the gleaming-voice of the Gautar of the cave [GIANTS > GOLD > WOMAN]’: The identity of this woman is obscure. Finnbogi Guðmundsson (ÍF 34, 196 n.) suggests that the st. could have been misplaced and that the woman who gladdened Rǫgnvaldr was the mistress of the farm who presented him with a leather garment after the shipwreck (see st. 9 below). The ‘gleaming voice of giants’ refers to the myth in which a giant’s gold was measured in mouthfuls (SnE 1998, I, 3). — [8] Gauta ‘of the Gautar’: Gautar (OE Geatas) are the inhabitants of Götaland in Sweden, but Gauti and Gautr are also names of Óðinn, in keeping with several Odinic references in this st.
kennings
- Gauta hellis — of the Gautar of the cave [GIANTS]
- glóraddar Gauta hellis — of the gleaming-voice of the Gautar of the cave [GOLD]
- Þella glóraddar Gauta hellis — The fir-tree of the gleaming-voice of the Gautar of the cave [WOMAN]
grammar
case: gen.
number: pl.