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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Anon Ól 6I/6 — vendr ‘fine’

Upp dró hilmir heppinn
hugstrangr á Orm langan
mann, sá er mentir kunni
mest, af sjó í festi.
‘Víst hefir vöknað næsta
vendr dyrðill þinn, frændi,’
yngvi öðrum kóngum
†aflagðr† fyrir sagði.

Heppinn, hugstrangr hilmir, sá er kunni mentir mest, dró mann í festi upp af sjó á Orm langan. ‘Vendr dyrðill þinn hefir víst næsta vöknað, frændi,’ sagði yngvi fyrir, †aflagðr† öðrum kóngum.

The lucky, strong-minded lord, who was most able in skills, dragged the man on a rope up out of the sea onto Ormr langr (‘Long Serpent’). ‘Your fine cloak has surely got almost soaked, kinsman,’ declared the prince, … other kings.

readings

[6] vendr: ‘uændr’ 61

notes

[6] vendr ‘fine’: Another minor emendation. The word is rare, but a similar sense is found in vend ljóð ‘excellent songs’ in the C16th Pontus rímur I, 90/2 (Pontus rímur 1961, 16, 461). This sense of vendr seems to be connected with vandr ‘difficult’ and vandaðr ‘elaborate, choice’ (from vanda ‘to make carefully, take pains over’); see ÍO: vendur; AEW: vendr. Ólafur Halldórsson (AM 61 1982, 24) argues that vendr here is ‘close, near’ (Fritzner IV: vendr), and should be construed with frændi ‘kinsman’. This is also possible (Þorkell is said in some sources to be Óláfr’s uncle; see Introduction) but seems less apposite, as the splendour of Þorkell’s cloak, also stressed in st. 7, is what gives the anecdote its point. The rhyme of vend- : frænd- finds parallels in the rímur (Finnur Jónsson 1884-91, 121).

grammar

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