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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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SnSt Ht 78III/4 — lim ‘the branch’

Hrǫnn skerr (hvatt ferr)
húfr kaldr (allvaldr);
lá brýtr (lǫg skýtr)
lim-Garmr (rangbarmr).
Brátt skekr (byrr rekr)
blán vegg (ráskegg);
jarl lætr almætr
ósvipt húnskript.

Kaldr húfr skerr hrǫnn; allvaldr ferr hvatt; lim-Garmr brýtr lá; rangbarmr skýtr lǫg. Skekr blán vegg brátt; byrr rekr ráskegg; almætr jarl lætr húnskript ósvipt.

The cold hull cuts the wave; the mighty ruler travels fast; the branch-Garmr <dog> [STORM] breaks the surf; the curved side of the ship thrusts aside the sea. The dark sail suddenly shakes; the breeze unfolds the sailyard-beard [SAIL]; the thoroughly glorious jarl leaves the decorated cloth of the mast-top [SAIL] unreefed.

notes

[4] lim-Garmr ‘the branch-Garmr <dog> [STORM]’: Garmr was the dog whose barking presaged the end of the world in Old Norse myth (see Vsp 44/1, 49/1, 58/1). The sense of this kenning is ‘destroyer of branches’, i.e. ‘storm’, though kennings of this type usually refer to ‘fire’ (e.g. ESk Run 7/8II).

kennings

grammar

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