Ótt Hfl 9I/8 — mǫrg ‘many a’
Þengill, frák, at þunga
þinn herr skipum ferri
(rauð Hringmaraheiði)
hlóð valkǫstu (blóði).
Laut fyr yðr, áðr létti,
landfolk í gný randa,
Engla ferð, at jǫrðu
ótt, en mǫrg á flótta.
Þengill, frák, at herr þinn hlóð þunga valkǫstu ferri skipum; rauð Hringmaraheiði blóði. Landfolk laut ótt at jǫrðu fyr yðr í gný randa, en mǫrg ferð Engla á flótta, áðr létti.
King, I heard that your army heaped up heavy piles of the slain far from the ships; they reddened Ringmere Heath with blood. The people of the land bowed down frantically to the ground before you in the clash of shields [BATTLE], and many a troop of the English [took] to flight, before it ended.
notes
[7, 8] en mǫrg ferð Engla á flótta ‘and many a troop of the English [took] to flight’: (a) The ellipsis of a verb of motion is assumed here, as in Skj B, and mǫrg is construed with ferð Engla, hence ‘many a troop of the English’. This requires complex syntax but provides the most satisfactory subject for the en-clause in l. 8. (b) Kock (NN §1130 anm., followed by ÍF 27) argues that laut ‘bowed down’ should be understood as an instance of apo koinou, participating in both clauses and giving a (somewhat implausible) sense of ‘[bowed down] in flight’ in l. 8. Kock and ÍF 27 assume that landfolk ‘people of the land’ and ferð Engla stand in apposition as joint subjects of the main clause, though they differ in their interpretation of mǫrg ‘many’. Kock takes it as substantival, with the sense ‘a great number’, though m. nom. pl. margir ‘many (men)’ might have been expected in this context. ÍF 27 links mǫrg with an understood repetition of ferð Engla.