Búa frák greitt ganga
— gladdi svanr Hanga —
— vǫkt vas gǫll geira —
gegnum lið þeira.
Frák Búa ganga greitt gegnum lið þeira; svanr Hanga gladdi; gǫll geira vas vǫkt.
I have heard that Búi went straight through their troop; the swan of Hangi <= Óðinn> [RAVEN] was gladdened; the shriek of spears [BATTLE] was roused.
[2] Hanga ‘of Hangi <= Óðinn>’: (a) Hangi is one of the many names of Óðinn, among whose attributes are two ravens (Grí 20; SnE 2005, 32-3). Meissner 121 takes Hanga thus here and in three other raven-kennings, and his list includes three further kennings with svanr ‘swan’ qualified by other Óðinn-heiti. (b) The noun hangi m. also means ‘hanged man, gallows-corpse’ and the kenning ‘swan of the gallows-corpse’ could alternatively be taken as a variant on the pattern ‘bird of the slain/corpse’, cf. haukar hræs ‘hawks of the corpse’ in st. 7/1 and further examples in Meissner 122. Hangi is taken as ‘hanged man’ in this and three similar raven-kennings in LP: hangi .