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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Þór Lv 1I/8 — vendir ‘swords’

Sitr við ôr, en etjum,
allvaldr, á sæ kaldan,
— vel rœr dróttar deilir
dýrr — en hundr við stýri.
Skelfir * gnap*mar Gylfa
gœðings skafit rœði;
jalmar hlumr við hilmis
hendr sem skildi vendir.

Allvaldr sitr við ôr, en hundr við stýri, en etjum á kaldan sæ; dýrr deilir dróttar rœr vel. Skafit rœði gœðings skelfir * gnap*mar Gylfa; hlumr jalmar við hendr hilmis, sem vendir skildi.

The mighty ruler sits at the oar, and a dog at the rudder, and we drive forward on the cold sea; the worthy controller of the retinue [RULER = Óláfr] rows well. The planed oar of the chieftain makes the towering horse of Gylfi <sea-king> [SHIP] shudder; the oar-handle squeals in the hands of the king, like swords on a shield.

notes

[8] sem vendir skildi ‘like swords on a shield’: The phrase is somewhat obscure. Vendir seems to be a half-kenning for ‘sword’ or possibly ‘spear-shaft’ (Meissner 77), and skildi to be a dat. sg. with a rare adverbial sense, ‘on a shield’. Previous commentators attach sem vendir skildi to the clause in ll. 5-6, assuming an understood repetition of the verb skelf(i)r ‘tremble, make shudder’, hence the oar trembles against, or shakes, the ship like sticks (Skj B; Reichardt 1930, 250-1), spear-shafts (Meissner 77) or swords (NN §1082) against a shield. However, it seems more likely that jalmar ‘squeals’ is understood from l. 7, so that the comparison is between the noise of the oar and the noise of a sword on a shield. This is supported by the fact that the related noun jalmr m. frequently collocates with terms referring to weapons or battle (LP: jalmr).

grammar

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