Anon (Hhárf) 1I/1 — Tréskegg ‘Tréskegg (‘Wood-beard’)’
Hann gaf Tréskegg trollum;
Torf-Einarr drap Skurfu.
Hann gaf Tréskegg trollum; Torf-Einarr drap Skurfu.
He gave Tréskegg (‘Wood-beard’) to the trolls; Torf-Einarr (Turf-Einarr) killed Skurfa (‘the Scabby’).
notes
[1] gaf Tréskegg trollum ‘gave Tréskegg (“Wood-beard”) to the trolls’: One of many instances, in prose and poetry, of this and related idioms (e.g. Anon (Gr) 1V (Gr 2), in which the named victim is Tréfótr ‘Wood-leg’). The sense is usually of killing, or wishing death upon a despised enemy, and the curse troll taki/hafi þik ‘may the trolls take/have you’ is particularly common (see further Note to ÞjóðA Sex 20/6, 7, 8II). The troll (or trǫll) is a monster or a hostile giant, a favourite target of the god Þórr (cf. Vsp 40/8; SnE 2005, 35). — [1, 2] Tréskegg; Skurfu ‘Tréskegg (“Wood-beard”); Skurfa (“the Scabby”)’: The identity of these two vikings is unknown, but their first names are given as Þórir (tréskegg) and Kálfr (skurfa). According to Orkn (ÍF 34, 10-11), the two had settled in Orkney, and Torf-Einarr was sent by his father, Rǫgnvaldr jarl Eysteinsson of Mœrr (Møre), to expel them from the Isles.