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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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ÞjJ Lv 2VIII (ÞJ 2)/1 — hildar ‘of battle’

Hlær, þá er hildar máva*
* hugr minn, koma þínum
— stafns verðk gjarn til Gefnar —
lendr fyr mér hæli.
Úlfr veit um — Syn sjálfa
sædags lofak fagra —
— mér verðr grund at grandi
grafsilfrs — etit hafði.

* Hugr minn hlær, þá er gælendr máva* hildar koma hæli þínum fyr mér; verðk gjarn til Gefnar stafns. Lofak fagra Syn sædags sjálfa; grund grafsilfrs verðr mér at grandi; úlfr veit um [þat, er] hafði etit.

My mind laughs when appeasers of the seagulls of battle [RAVENS/EAGLES > WARRIORS] bring your woman before me; I desire the Gefn <goddess> of the headdress [WOMAN]. I praise the beautiful Syn <goddess> of the sea-day [GOLD > WOMAN] herself; the ground of engraved silver [WOMAN] causes me suffering; the wolf knows [what] he had eaten.

notes

[1, 4] lendr máva* hildar ‘appeasers of the seagulls of battle [RAVENS/EAGLES > WARRIORS]’: Two emendations have been required to produce this warrior-kenning. Holm6’s ‘gæðindr’ must be emended in order for there to be aðalhending in l. 4 and in order to make sense. Gunnlaugur Þórðarson (ÞJ 1857, 63) suggested gælindi (having read Holm6 as ‘gæðindi’). A minor emendation to gælendr ‘appeasers’, the m. nom. pl. form of the agent noun formed from the verb gæla ‘soothe, appease’ (LP, Fritzner: gœla; CVC: gæla; cf. ANG §173. 2), produces the base-word of a warrior-kenning with máva* hildar ‘of the seagulls of battle’, a conventional kenning for birds of prey, with emendation of ms. mávar to gen. pl. máva.

kennings

grammar

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