Án Lv 3VIII (Án 3)/5 — uxa ‘of oxen’
Því betr mér þykkir,
ef þá skal valr falla
nær vér fráligra færum
fót at geira móti.
Drekkum alt af uxa
ennigeira hlenni;
vera mun snarpra sverða
svipun, ef ek skal ráða.
Þykkir mér því betr, ef valr skal þá falla, nær vér færum fráligra fót at móti geira. Drekkum alt af hlenni ennigeira uxa; mun vera svipun snarpra sverða, ef ek skal ráða.
It will seem to me so much better, if then the slain are to fall, when we quickly betake our feet to the meeting of spears [BATTLE]. Let us drink fully from the resounding sea (?) of the forehead-spears of oxen [HORNS > DRINK]; there will be a swinging of sharp swords [BATTLE], if I am to have my way.
notes
[5-6] af hlenni ennigeira uxa ‘from the resounding sea (?) of the forehead-spears of oxen [HORNS > DRINK]’: Ennigeirar uxa ‘the forehead-spears of oxen’ is clearly a kenning for drinking horns, and it is presumed that hlenni must here denote some kind of liquid, in order to produce a kenning for alcoholic drink similar to Egill Lv 6/3-4V (Eg 10) ýring atgeira ýrar ‘moisture of the spears of the [female] aurochs’ (cf. ÍF 2, 110 n.). In the construction drekkum ... af ... hlenni the form hlenni must be dat. sg. The only Old Norse word with the stem hlenn- is hlenni ‘robber, thief’, but the dat. sg. of this word is hlenna and in any case it does not fit the context. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) offers no explanation of the word here (cf. LP: hlenni; Skj B). Kock suggests that there may be an etymological connection between the word hlenni here and such Old English words as hlyn (m. ‘sound, noise, din’; NN §1484). Since many Old Norse words whose etymological meaning is ‘noise, din’ are used to denote the sea or a wave, Kock suggests that hlenni ennigeira uxa is a kenning for drink of the type ‘resounding sea/wave of the drinking horn’ (cf. Meissner 432). Hughes (1972, 221 n. 36) emends hlenni to hlemi, which he appears to interpret as a word meaning ‘noise’ (1972, 46). The word hlenni remains obscure, but the meaning of the kenning and the passage as a whole is clear.
kennings
- ennigeira uxa; — of the forehead-spears of oxen; [HORNS]
- hlenni ennigeira uxa; — the resounding sea (?) of the forehead-spears of oxen; [DRINK]