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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Svart Skauf 4VIII/7 — hryggsnauð ‘bare on our backs’

Mælti gortanni         við grenlægju:
‘Hvað skulum vinna         vier til þarfa?
Við erum orðin         veiklunduð mjög
hryggsnauð harla         en halar rotnaðir.’

Gortanni mælti við grenlægju: ‘Hvað skulum vier vinna til þarfa? Við erum orðin mjög veiklunduð, harla hryggsnauð en halar rotnaðir.’

Filth-tooth spoke to the lair-lier [VIXEN]: ‘What should we do for our sustenance? We have become very weak-minded, exceedingly bare on our backs, and our tails have shed their hair.’

readings

[7] hryggsnauð: ‘hrigg, snaud’ Rask87ˣ

notes

[7] hryggsnauð ‘bare on our backs’: Lit. ‘back-bare’. CPB II, 610 suggests ‘shrunk in the back, lean’, but the subsequent reference to hair loss (l. 8) seems to corroborate thin-haired, mangy backs and not ‘lean’.

grammar

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