ESk Lv 13III/5 — fljótum ‘its swift’
Máni skínn af mœni
moldar hofs of foldir
alla stund, meðan endisk
ævi lands ok sævar.
Veitk félaga fljótum
fróns prýði vel þjóna;
þeim vitu eigi ýtar
auðit lífs né dauða.
Máni skínn af mœni hofs moldar of foldir alla stund, meðan ævi lands ok sævar endisk. Veitk prýði fróns þjóna fljótum félaga vel; ýtar vitu eigi þeim auðit lífs né dauða.
The moon shines from the roof-ridge of the temple of the ground [SKY > ZENITH] throughout the countries all the time while the life of land and sea endures. I know that the adorner of the earth [SUN] serves its swift companion well; people do not know that one has been allotted neither life nor death.
notes
[5] fljótum félaga ‘its swift companion’: The identity of this swift companion is debated. Björn Magnússon Ólsen (FoGT 1884, 292) construed fljótum félaga fróns ‘the swift companion of the earth’, i.e. ‘the moon’, and took prýði (m. acc. sg.) ‘adorner’ (l. 6) as a half-kenning for ‘sun’. Finnur Jónsson (LP: félagi) interpreted fljótum félaga ‘swift companion’ as ‘earth’ and prýði (m. acc. sg.) fróns ‘adorner of the earth’ as ‘moon’. Kock (NN §2343) correctly pointed out that it makes little sense to regard the earth as the moon’s ‘swift companion’. He accordingly emended to fljótan félaga (m. acc. sg.) and took prýði as the f. dat. sg. ‘adornment’ to reverse the imagery: ‘I know that the swift companion (i.e. the moon) serves the adornment of the earth (i.e. the sun) well’. That emendation goes against the ms. witnesses and is unnecessary. The idea that the orbit of the moon is faster than that of the sun is in perfect accordance with ancient and medieval cosmological treatises and with the phenomenon called saltus lunae ‘the moon’s leap’, and Einarr must have been familiar with this concept (see Clunies Ross and Gade 2012, 205-6).