Feima ek heiti; fædd var ek norðarla,
Hrímnis dóttir ór háfjalli.
Hér er systir mín hálfu fremri
Kleima at nafni komin til sjóvar.
Ek heiti Feima; ek var fædd norðarla, dóttir Hrímnis, ór háfjalli. Hér er systir mín, hálfu fremri, Kleima at nafni, komin til sjóvar.
I am called Feima; I was born in northern parts, daughter of Hrímnir <giant>, from the high mountain. Here my sister, twice as courageous, Kleima by name, has come to the sea-shore.
[7] Kleima: This name is considered to be etymologically related to the Old Norse verb kleima ‘besmear, besmirch’ (HálfdEyst ch. 16, FSGJ 4, 271), and to the synonymous verb klæma used figuratively in the sense ‘shame, mock’ (AEW: kleima; ÍO: 1 kleima). In New Norwegian dialects the noun kleima denotes something ‘sticky’ or a person who is slow (cf. also the New Norwegian verb kleima ‘stick’), while the noun kleim variously refers to a person who is ‘forward’ or ‘clumsy’ (cf. Ross 1895-1913: kleim; Aasen 2003: kleima and Kleima; NO: I kleima and kleime). In Modern Icelandic the noun kleima means ‘blotch, scratch’. All of these words are pejorative; if the name Kleima was understood to mean anything (and not simply invented to rhyme with Feima), then it may perhaps have been interpreted as ‘smear, blotch’ (cf. the characterisation of the milkmaid Beyla in Lok 56).