Skal ek ykr báðum skjótliga heita
oddi ok eggju í upphafi.
Munu þá reyna Hrungnis mellur,
hvárt betr dugir broddr eða krumma.
Ek skal heita ykr báðum oddi ok eggju skjótliga í upphafi. Mellur Hrungnis munu þá reyna, hvárt broddr eða krumma dugir betr.
I will quickly promise you both at the outset weapon-point and blade. The female lovers of Hrungnir <giant> [GIANTESSES] will discover then whether weapon-point or claw is more effective.
[8] broddr eða krumma ‘weapon-point or claw’: A reference to the ‘weapons’ of Grímr and the troll-women respectively, illustrating the difference between the ‘civilised technology’ employed by the human being Grímr and the ‘primitive’ method of combat employed by the giantesses, who fight with their bare hands; cf. Ket 26/1-2 and Note to [All]. The literal meaning of krumma or krymma is ‘[hand with] bent or crooked [fingers]’; in other texts it is used of the (large) hands of giants and also of the large and/or ugly hands of human beings (ÞorstBm ch. 7, FSGJ 4, 334; Kjaln ch. 15, ÍF 14, 35; Mork, ÍF 23, 156; Vígl ch. 21, ÍF 14, 113-14). The closest parallel to the stanza in GrL appears in HHj, in the part of the poem known as Hrímgerðarmál ‘The Speech of Hrímgerðr’: in HHj 22 (NK 145) the giantess Hrímgerðr threatens Atli, who holds watch in the bow of Helgi Hjǫrvarðsson’s ship, with the words: Atli, gacc þú á land, | ef afli treystiz, | ok hittomc í víc Varins, | rifia rétti | er þú munt, reccr, fá, | ef þú mér í krymmor kømr! ‘Atli, go on land, if you trust in your strength, and let us meet in the bay of Varinn; it is a straightening of the ribs that you will get, man, if you fall into my clutches’.