Anon Ól 3I/2 — hesti ‘the horse’
Fór í braut á báru
bauglestir af hesti
†… á … da …†
… bekkjar herrekkir.
Satt var, að seggjum þótti
— sáz þeingils spor eingi —
— oft siez Ólafs gifta —
jöfurs ferð kynjum verða.
Bauglestir fór í braut á báru af hesti †… á … da …† bekkjar herrekkir … Satt var, að ferð jöfurs þótti seggjum verða kynjum; eingi spor þeingils sáz; gifta Ólafs siez oft.
The ring-harmer [GENEROUS MAN] went away on the wave from the horse … of the bench … the troop-emboldener [RULER] … It was true that the prince’s journey seemed to men to turn out miraculously; no footprints of the ruler were to be seen; Óláfr’s blessedness is often seen.
notes
[2] af hesti ... ‘from the horse ...’: Hesti ‘horse’ is certain, and in the context is most likely to be the base-word of a ship-kenning. The determinant may be a sea-kenning incorporating bekkjar ‘of the bench’ as determinant (see LP: 2. bekkr 1 for examples), or possibly bekkjar alone in the sense ‘ship’ (LP: 2. bekkr 2). Af ‘from’ is less clear: Finnur Jónsson reads ‘a’, which he takes as a scribal error for af, but Ólafur Halldórsson (AM 61 1982, 23) thinks the ms. has a ligature of ‘a’ + ‘f’, i.e. af. Kock (NN §3346) suggests emendation to ráhesti (m. dat. sg.) ‘sailyard-horse’, hence á ráhesti báru ‘on the sailyard-horse of the waves [SHIP]’, but this (overdetermined) kenning is not justified, given the fragmentary state of the text, and neither is his reading in Skald of af for á (l. 1).
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 | ||