ESk Frag 18III/3 — varra ‘of the wake’
Né framlyndir fundu
fyrr, (hykkat lô kyrrðu)
þars sær á við varra
(vini óra) fell stórum.
Framlyndir né fundu fyrr, þars sær fell stórum á við varra; hykkat lô kyrrðu vini óra.
The confident ones did not discover it earlier, where the sea fell violently on the wood of the wake [SHIP]; I do not believe the wave calmed our friends.
readings
[3] varra: ‘vorv’ R, fóru Tˣ, ‘varv’ A, ‘varo’ 744ˣ, ‘vara’ C
notes
[3] varra (m. gen. pl.) ‘of the wake’: The ms. variants make no sense in this context, and the emendation is in keeping with earlier eds. Vǫrr can either mean ‘wake (of a ship)’ or ‘oar-stroke’, both of which are suitable as determinants in a kenning for ‘ship’. See also Note to Frag 12/2 above. — [3] á við varra ‘on the wood of the wake [SHIP]’: Skj B separates the preposition á ‘on’ from the following nominal phrase and construes a prepositional phrase á vini óra ‘on our friends’, taking við varra ‘the wood of the wake’ as the object of kyrrðu ‘calmed’ (past inf., l. 2). Such a word order is otherwise unattested in skaldic syntax (see NN §961).
kennings
- við varra; — the wood of the wake; [SHIP]