ESk Frag 14III/4 — bif ‘the trembling’
Viknar ramr í Rakna
reksaumr flugastraumi;
dúks hrindr bǫl, þars bleikir
bifgrund, á stag rifjum.
Ramr reksaumr viknar í flugastraumi Rakna; bǫl dúks hrindr rifjum á stag, þars bifgrund bleikir.
The strong seam of driven nails flexes in the cascade of Rakni <sea-king> [SEA]; the harm of the sail [WIND] forces the reefs against the stay, where the trembling ground [SEA] goes white.
notes
[4] bifgrund ‘the trembling ground [SEA]’: This is an imperfect kenning for ‘sea’ (but see Rv Lv 21/4II svalteigr ‘cool plot [SEA]’), and some earlier eds (Skj B; SnE 1998, I, 38, II, 244) take Rakna ‘of Rakni’ (l. 1) as a determinant: bifgrund Rakna ‘the shaking ground of Rakni’, i.e. ‘the sea’. That construction leaves a dangling prep. (í ‘in’, l. 1), which does not otherwise occur in skaldic syntax (see NN §960). The R variant, bifgrundar (f. gen. sg. or nom./acc. pl.), cannot be construed in a syntactically meaningful way.
kennings
- bifgrund — the trembling ground [SEA]