SnSt Ht 83III/3 — hlunns ‘of the roller’
Naðrs gnapa ógn alla,
eyðir baugvalla,
hlunns of hástalla
hestar svanfjalla.
Orms es glatt galla
með gumna spjalla;
jarl fremr sveit snjalla;
slíkt má skǫrung kalla.
Eyðir baugvalla, hestar svanfjalla gnapa of hástalla hlunns alla ógn naðrs. Es glatt með spjalla gumna galla orms; jarl fremr snjalla sveit; slíkt má kalla skǫrung.
Destroyer of shieldboss-meadows [SHIELDS > WARRIOR = Skúli], horses of swan-mountains [WAVES > SHIPS] tower in the tall foundations of the roller throughout the entire terror of the adder [WINTER]. It is cheerful with the confidant of men [RULER] during the destruction of the snake [WINTER]; the jarl advances the clever company; such [a one] one must call an outstanding person.
notes
[3] of hástalla hlunns ‘in the tall foundations of the roller’: This phrase clearly refers to structures in or on which a beached ship rested during the winter. Hlunnr was one of the launching rollers on which a ship was pulled up from the water or launched (cf. Falk 1912, 29-30), but the meaning of hástallar is not immediately clear. The first element is the adj. hár ‘high, tall’ and the second is stallr m. which can have several meanings (Fritzner: stallr 1, 4, 5): ‘stand, structure, foundation, altar’; ‘crib, manger’; ‘stable’. Finnur Jónsson (LP: hôstallr) suggests that hástallr hlunns refers to det af rullestokkene dannede höje underlag (hvorpå skibet står om vinteren) ‘the tall foundation made of launching rollers (on which the ship rests during the winter)’. In a similar vein, Faulkes (SnE 2007, 114) proposes ‘high stand … high slipway-stand, or high supporting structure (for a beached ship)’. The latter interpretation would also fit if stallr here meant ‘crib, manger’. Alternatively, if stallr is taken in the sense ‘stable’, hástalla hlunns ‘the tall stables of the roller’ could be an unconventional kenning for ‘boathouse’ (ON naust; see LP: naust and Falk 1912, 27). According to Hák, king Hákon celebrated his coronation in 1247 in a boathouse he had built by the harbour in Bergen, because that was the largest house in his possession (90 ells long and 60 ells broad; see E 1916, 620).