Svart Skauf 9VIII/5 — hál ‘slippery’
Mælti þanninn móðir dratthala:
‘Matr er ei meiri mier í höndum:
hál rófubein og hryggr ór lambi,
bógleggir þrír og banakringla’.
Móðir mælti dratthala þanninn: ‘Meiri matr er ei í höndum mier: hál rófubein og hryggr ór lambi, þrír bógleggir og banakringla.’
The mother spoke to Dragging-tail in this way: ‘There is no more food at my disposal: slippery tailbones and a backbone of lamb, three shoulder bones and an upper neck bone.’
readings
[5] hál rófu‑: ‘en hal’röu’ Rask87ˣ
notes
[5] hál rófubein ‘slippery tailbones’: Hál ‘slippery’ is taken as an adj. (n. nom. pl.) here. Kölbing (1876) renders this as halrófubein without comment (so also Jón Þorkelsson 1922-7: halrófu bein). CPB has hala-rófu-bein (followed by Páll Eggert Ólason 1947: halarófu bein), which Guðbrandur Vigfússon (CPB II, 610) glosses as ‘tail bone of a tail’, stating that the first element of the cpd is superfluous and was added to furnish alliteration. Following Rask87ˣ, Jón Þorkelsson (1888) gives hálróu bein without an explanation, and the word hálróu is obscure. ‑Róu could be a short form of ‑rófu (f. gen. sg.) ‘tail’ (see Note to st. 13/2 and Jón Þorkelsson 1922-7 halrófu), but hál- (or hal-) is difficult to make sense of as the first element in this cpd.