Hfr ErfÓl 6I/8 — sarka ‘how to redden’
Herskerðir klauf harðan
— hann gekk reiðr of skeiðar —
svarðar stofn með sverði
sunnr eldviðum kunnum.
Kunni gramr at gunni
— gunnþinga jarnmunnum
margr lá heggr of hǫggvinn —
holdbarkar rô sarka.
Herskerðir klauf harðan stofn svarðar kunnum eldviðum með sverði sunnr; hann gekk reiðr of skeiðar. Gramr kunni sarka rô holdbarkar at gunni; margr heggr Gunnþinga lá of hǫggvinn jarnmunnum.
The army-diminisher [RULER] split the hard stump of the scalp [HEAD] of famous sword-trees [WARRIORS] with a sword in the south; he went angry through the warships. The prince knew how to redden the yard-arm of flesh-bark [MAIL-SHIRT > SWORD] in battle; many a cherry-tree of meetings of Gunnr <valkyrie> [BATTLES > WARRIOR] lay chopped down by iron mouths.
readings
[8] sarka: ‘sęrka’ Bb, ‘sarkat’ A
notes
[8] sarka ‘redden’: (a) The interpretation preferred in the Text above is kunni ... sarka ‘knew how to redden’. Although the verb *sarka ‘redden (with wounds)’ is otherwise unknown and its meaning somewhat uncertain, ‘redden’ is vouched for by ms. A’s equation of sarkat with roðit ‘reddened’. Other solutions are less plausible. (b) AEW: sarka assumes derivation from sárr ‘wound’, and suggests the possibility of a form sárka (also the headword in LP), but the short vowel is metrically guaranteed in the present stanza. (c) LP (1860): rásárka suggested that ‘roðit’, to which ‘sarkat’ is equated in SnE, is hroðit ‘stripped’ rather than roðit ‘reddened’, presumably yielding something along the lines of ‘strip until raw’.