Forað Lv 2VIII (Ket 18)/4 — Hverr ‘Who’
Mörgum manni hefik til moldar snúit,
þeim er á fiski fór.
Hverr er sjá inn köpurmáli, er kominn er í skerin?
Hefik snúit til moldar mörgum manni, þeim er fór á fiski. Hverr er sjá inn köpurmáli, er kominn er í skerin?
I have turned towards the earth many a man who went fishing. Who is that presumptious-speaking man who has come among the skerries?
readings
[4] Hverr: eða hverr 471
notes
[4] hverr er sjá inn köpurmáli ‘who is that presumptious-speaking man’: The adj. kǫpurmáll is a hap. leg. but the synonym kǫpurmálugr appears in Ǫrv, where it is used of Ǫrvar-Oddr by the giant Hildir (Ǫrv 1888, 121 and variant reading l. 24). The etymology of kǫpur- is obscure (AEW: kǫpurmáll; ÍO: köpurmáll), but its sense is clearly derogatory, and implies arrogance, defiance and recklessness in the speaker. Giants are often represented in Old Norse literature as using comparable expressions to belittle their opponents (cf. Kommentar II, 190-1 to Hárb 13/5). In Gylf the giant Skrýmir warns Þórr that the people at the abode of the giant-like Útgarðaloki will not tolerate þvílíkum kǫgursveinum kǫpuryrði ‘overbearing speech of such babes in arms’ (SnE 2005, 39); cf. the similar episode in Þiðr ch. 303 (Þiðr 1905-11, I, 362).