Mgóð Lv 1II/4 — hest ‘horse’
Enn, þótt héti Hvinngestr faðir minn,
gerði eigi sá garð of hestreðr,
sem Sigurðr sýr; sá vas þinn faðir!
Enn, þótt faðir minn héti Hvinngestr, gerði sá eigi garð of hestreðr sem Sigurðr sýr; sá vas þinn faðir!
Yet, even though my father was called Hvinngestr (‘Thief-guest’), he never put a fence around horse-phalli like Sigurðr sýr (‘Sow’); he was your father!
notes
[4] garð of hestreðr ‘a fence around horse-phalli’: According to LP: garðr 6, this apparently meant ‘wrap the phallus of a horse so that it could not mate’. A more practical explanation is that it refers to the custom of separating the stallions from the mares by putting them in a separate, fenced-off pasture. Erik Noreen’s attempt to connect the phrase with a pagan phallus cult is not persuasive (Noreen 1922, 51). The l. may allude to Sigurðr sýr’s fondness for farm activities (see Flat 1860-8, II, 12; ÍF 27, 41), but the veiled insult is clearly of a sexual nature (making a fence, a ‘ring’ around horse-phalli), implying that Sigurðr sýr, in keeping with his feminised nickname, had been the passive partner in sexual intercourse with stallions (see SnH Lv 11; see also Hjǫrtr Lv 1-3). For legal punishments incurred by poetic insults, see Andersson and Gade 2000, 474.
grammar
Masculine: gen. sing. -s; nom. pl. -ar/-jar
| nom. pl. -ar | nom. pl. -jar | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| sing. | N A G D | hestr hest hests hesti | jǫkull jǫkul jǫkuls jǫkli | jǫtunn jǫtun jǫtuns jǫtni | ketill ketil ketils katli | niðr nið niðs nið |
| pl. | N A G D | hestar hesta hesta hestum | jǫklar jǫkla jǫkla jǫklum | jǫtnar jǫtna jǫtna jǫtnum | katlar katla katla kǫtlum | niðjar niðja niðja niðjum |
| horse | glacier | giant | kettle | kinsman | ||