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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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ÞGísl Búdr 11I/5 — bens ‘of the wound’

Sté fyrir húf hesti
hrófs inn þrekmesti
gœðir gunnskára;
gladdisk naðr sára.
Niðr kom bens bára;
Búi nam sér hvára
— ferð hykk friðar misstu —
frœkn í hǫnd kistu.

Inn þrekmesti gœðir gunnskára sté fyrir húf hesti hrófs; naðr sára gladdisk. Bára bens kom niðr; frœkn Búi nam kistu í hvára hǫnd sér; hykk ferð misstu friðar.

The most powerful endower of battle-gulls [RAVENS/EAGLES > WARRIOR] leapt from the hull of the horse of the boat-shed [SHIP]; the snake of wounds [SWORD] was gladdened. The wave of the wound [BLOOD] poured down; the valiant Búi took a chest in each of his hands; I think men missed out on peace.

readings

[5] bens bára: byrs bára 61, bensára 53, 54, Bb

notes

[5] bára bens ‘the wave of the wound [BLOOD]’: Though not strictly an emendation, the reading bens bára is a conjectural combination of elements from byrs bára (61) and bensára or ben sára (53, 54, Bb). Neither ms. reading makes sense, and ‑sára appears to be a case of dittography (cf. l. 4 sára ‘of wounds’), while bens bára, adopted in previous eds (Fms 12, Skj B, Skald, Ólafur Halldórsson 2000) gives good sense. Ben ‘wound’ is more commonly a f. noun whose gen. form is benjar, but here it is n. with gen. sg. form in -s (cf. ANG §382); this may also have contributed to the presumed corruption. Bens is a suitable determinant for the blood-kenning required by the context (cf. Meissner 206-7), while the 61 reading byrs ‘of the favouring wind’ is not, unless byrr is assumed, exceptionally, to be a heiti for ‘battle’.

kennings

grammar

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