Eyv Hák 21I/5 — með ‘with’
Deyr fé, deyja frændr,
eyðisk land ok láð,
síz Hôkun fór með heiðin goð;
mǫrg es þjóð of þéuð.
Fé deyr, frændr deyja, land ok láð eyðisk, síz Hôkun fór með heiðin goð; mǫrg þjóð es of þéuð.
Livestock are dying, kinsfolk are dying, land and realm become deserted, since Hákon went with the heathen gods; many a nation is enslaved.
readings
notes
[5] með heiðin goð ‘with the heathen gods’: The reference to ‘heathen gods’ in a poem that purports to be heathen in perspective has been found incongruous (Wimmer 1877, 162; Holthausen 1896, 124), though Marold (1993a, 175) regards the phrase as simply one of ‘the collective terms characteristic of the late-pagan religion of the environment of the earls of Hlaðir’. The acc. case in this construction has also been the subject of debate, presumably since með ‘with’ + acc. is most often used of taking someone or something with one, while með + dat. suggests willing accompaniment (e.g. Fritzner: með 4, 5), but there is some flexibility of usage, and acc. may simply lend prominence to Hákon here. Cf. st. 10/5 með her mikinn (acc. sg.) ‘with a great army’. Clunies Ross (2005a, 51) takes fór með to mean ‘travelled among’, and for a further possibility see Hkr 1991.