Anon (ÓT) 1I/5 — Heldr ‘rather’
Nú hefr stafnval Stefnis
— straumr ferr of hol knerri —
felliveðr af fjalli
fjallrœnt brotit allan.
Heldr kveðk víst, at valdi
— vesa munu bǫnd í landi —
— geisar ô með ísi —
ásríki gný slíkum.
Nú hefr fjallrœnt felliveðr brotit allan stafnval Stefnis; straumr ferr af fjalli of hol knerri. Kveðk heldr víst, at ásríki valdi slíkum gný; bǫnd munu vesa í landi; ô geisar með ísi.
Now destructive weather from the mountain has smashed the whole stem-steed [SHIP] of Stefnir; the torrent flows from the mountain over the hull of the vessel. I declare it rather certainly that divine power may cause such tumult; the gods must be in the land; the river is gushing with ice.
notes
[5] heldr ‘rather’: This adv. seems to qualify the statement, and especially víst ‘certain’ in the ÓT reading. It may be intensive, though heldr more usually dilutes meaning. Another view would be that it has a strongly adversative sense ‘instead’, introducing divine power in the second helmingr as an alternative explanation that overrides the purely natural one in the first (so Nj 1875-8, II, 198, followed by Kahle in Kristni 1905). However, the intercalation of a reference to natural forces in l. 7 is against this view.