Eyv Lv 14I/1 — feldar ‘a cloak’
Fengum feldarstinga,
fjǫrð- ok galt við -hjǫrðu,
þanns álhimins útan
oss lendingar sendu.
Mest selda ek mínar
við mævǫrum sævar
— hallæri veldr hvôru —
hlaupsildr Egils gaupna.
Fengum feldarstinga, þanns lendingar álhimins sendu oss útan, ok galt við fjǫrðhjǫrðu. Mest selda ek mínar hlaupsildr gaupna Egils við mævǫrum sævar; hallæri veldr hvôru.
We [I] received a cloak-pin, which the landsmen of the channel-sky [ICE > ICELANDERS] sent us [me] from abroad [Iceland], and I spent it on fjord-herds [HERRINGS]. Most of all I sold my leaping herrings of Egill’s <legendary hero’s> palms [ARROWS] for the slender arrows of the sea [HERRINGS]; the famine causes both things.
readings
[1] feldar‑: foldar J1ˣ
notes
[1] feldarstinga ‘a cloak-pin’: The form of the noun is acc. sg., with which þann(s) in l. 3 agrees, and this implies (here and in Lv 1/2) a weak m. stingi ‘stabber, pin, dagger’ alongside strong stingr: cf. stinga ‘to stab, sting’, stingr ‘rod, that which stabs’ (Ólhv Hryn 8/6II and Note), and see ONP: stingi, stingr for instances of both weak and strong forms in later prose in the sense ‘stitch, stinging pain’. These nouns are mostly attested in the gen. pl. form, making their declensional category uncertain. A pin was used as part of a brooch or clasp fastening the cloak at the shoulder (cf. Turville-Petre 1976, 45). Silver cloak-pins, often in the form of disc brooches, from this era are a common archaeological find (cf. Wilson and Klindt-Jensen 1980, plate LXVI; Graham-Campbell 2001a, 117) and can contain sufficient precious metal to give credence to the present story.