Ásmk Lv 2VIII (Ásm 8)/4 — fletmegninga ‘hall-fighters’
Börðumz einn við einn en endr við tvá,
fimm ok fjóra fletmegninga,
sex ok við sjau senn á velli,
einn ok við átta, þó ek enn lifi.
Börðumz einn við einn en endr við tvá, fimm ok fjóra fletmegninga, sex ok við sjau senn á velli ok einn við átta, þó ek lifi enn.
We [I] fought one against one and again against two, five and four hall-fighters, six and against seven at a time on the field, and one against eight, yet I am still alive.
notes
[4] fletmegninga ‘hall-fighters’: This cpd noun is a hap. leg. The first element is flet ‘raised platform along the wall of a hall where the benches are and where people sleep, hall (pars pro toto)’, but the meaning of the second must be inferred from the context and possible etymology. LP: fletmegningr suggests that the noun may mean ‘incompetent, unwarlike man’, with the implied sense of someone who has only the strength (megin) to sit on a bench in the hall or possibly someone who derives strength from being at home. On the other hand Kock (NN §797) postulates that the cpd is equivalent in meaning to OE fletwerod ‘hall-troop’, fletsittend(e) ‘sitter in the hall’ (Beowulf 476, 1788, 2022).