Anon Liðs 5I/6 — blás ‘linen cord’
Hár þykki mér, hlýra,
hinn jarl, es brá snarla
— mær spyrr vitr, at væri
valkǫstr — ara fǫstu.
En þekkjǫndum þykkir
þunnblás meginásar
hǫrð, sús hilmir gerði,
hríð, á Tempsar síðu.
Hinn jarl, es snarla brá fǫstu hlýra ara, þykki mér hár; vitr mær spyrr, at væri valkǫstr. En hríð, sús hilmir gerði á síðu Tempsar, þykkir hǫrð þekkjǫndum meginásar þunnblás.
That jarl, who briskly broke the fast of the brother of the eagle [RAVEN/EAGLE], seems tall to me; the wise maiden hears that there was a heap of the slain. And the battle which the ruler waged on the bank of the Thames seems hard to knowers of the powerful pole of the thin linen cord [ARROW > BOWMEN].
readings
[6] ‑blás: ‘‑blacs’ DG8
notes
[6] þunnblás ‘of the thin linen cord’: This seems to refer to the bow-string. There are no attestations of this sense of the element blá in OWN. Skj B (followed by Skald) emends þunn to Þunns, hence þekkjǫndum blás meginásar Þunns ‘knowers of the dark mighty pole of Þunnr <= Óðinn> [SWORD > WARRIORS]’. But the emendation is unnecessary if we link blá with OEN blaa ‘coarse linen fibre’ (for this word see Falk 1919, 63; Hoffmann 1982, 137). The cpd þunnblá is closely paralleled by Bragi Þórr 6/3III mjótygill ‘slender string’. Bowstrings were often made of linen (Alm 1957, 460) and in poetry can be called simply hǫrr ‘linen’ (LP: hǫrr 2). In kennings for ‘arrow’ strengr ‘string’ is a common determinant and words such as reyr ‘reed’ and vǫlr ‘stick, staff’ occur as base-words (Meissner 146-7). Accordingly, the meginás(s) ‘mighty pole or shaft’ of the ‘thin linen fibre’ denotes the arrow and the complete kenning þekkjǫndum meginásar þunnblás means ‘experts with arrows’, i.e. ‘bowmen’, in reference to the vikings.
kennings
- meginásar þunnblás. — of the powerful pole of the thin linen cord. [ARROW]
- þekkjǫndum meginásar þunnblás. — to knowers of the powerful pole of the thin linen cord. [BOWMEN]