Anon Krm 2VIII/7 — hjálma ‘helmets’
Hjuggu vér með hjörvi.
Heldr var ek ungr, þá er skífðum
austr í Eyrasundi
undurn frekum vargi,
ok fótgulum fugli
fengu vér, þar er sungu
við háseymða hjálma
hörð járn, mikils verðar.
Allr var ægir sollinn;
óð rafn í valblóði.
Hjuggu vér með hjörvi. Ek var heldr ungr, þá er skífðum frekum vargi undurn austr í Eyrasundi ok fengu vér fótgulum fugli mikils verðar, þar er hörð járn sungu við háseymða hjálma. Allr ægir var sollinn; rafn óð í valblóði.
We hewed with the sword. I was very young when we chopped up a breakfast for the greedy wolf east in the Øresund, and we provided a massive meal for the yellow-footed bird where tough swords sang on rivet-studded helmets. All the sea was troubled; the raven waded in corpse-blood.
notes
[7] háseymða hjálma ‘rivet-studded helmets’: Háseymðr, p. p., means lit. ‘nailed high up’ (LP: hôseymðr). What seem to be in question here are helmets of the type illustrated by Thordeman (1941, 93), of which fragments dating from the C5th and C6th have been found at Tuna on Gotland. This type of helmet, not commonly found in Scandinavia, appears to have consisted of a circlet from which four or six metal strips shaped like upturned Ts curve upwards and inwards, forming a conical shape, and meet at a rounded top where they are held together by a boss, the spaces between the strips being filled by convex metal plates attached from below to the strips by rivets, the heads of which appear on the exterior of the helmet.