RvHbreiðm Hl 79III/2 — við ‘against’
Ǫrt rauð Óláfr snyrtis
egg; gall hjǫrr við leggi;
dunði bitr á brynjur
brandr; skôru spjǫr randir.
Bitu rammslegin rimmu
reyr; knôttu ben dreyra;
ferð, þars fylkir barðisk,
fell; hné drótt at velli.
Óláfr rauð ǫrt egg snyrtis; hjǫrr gall við leggi; bitr brandr dunði á brynjur; spjǫr skôru randir. Rammslegin reyr rimmu bitu; ben knôttu dreyra; ferð fell, þars fylkir barðisk; drótt hné at velli.
Óláfr swiftly reddened the sword’s edge; the sword rang against legs; the sharp blade resounded against byrnies; spears cut shields. Hard-hammered reeds of battle [SWORDS] bit; wounds bled; the company fell where the ruler fought; the retinue sank to the ground.
readings
[2] við: ‘ṣc̣ạṛ’ papp25ˣ, skar R683ˣ
notes
[2] við ‘against’: (a) The present edn follows Hl 1941. The reading is conjectural and both mss have skar ‘cut’. Rugman may have mistaken a prep. (við ‘against’ + acc. pl. (?)) for the verb skar ‘cut’. Admittedly, it is difficult to see how við could be read as skar, but Rugman’s transcription of the word in papp25ˣ (‘ṣc̣ạṛ’), shows that he was uncertain about all of the letters in that word (see the discussion in Hl 1941). The verb skar with the object legg ‘leg’ occurs in st. 77/1, 4 as well, and could have influenced Rugman’s interpretation of a word he was unable to make out (see also beit egg manns legg ‘an edge bit a man’s leg’ in st. 78/2, the stanza directly preceding this one). (b) Skj B renders the line as egg gall; hjǫrr skar leggi ‘the edge resounded; the sword cut legs’, which is in violation of álagsháttr (positions 2-6 ought to form one independent clause; see Note to l. 1 above). (c) Kock also construes two clauses (positions 2-6): hjǫrr gall; skar leggi ‘the sword resounded; [it] cut the legs’ which creates an awkward, tripartite line and again violates the syntactic pattern of álagsháttr.