Anon Krm 2VIII/10 — rafn ‘the raven’
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.
readings
[10] rafn (‘Rafn’): so R702ˣ, LR, R693ˣ, ‘rrann’ 1824b, ‘rrafn’ with Rán in margin 6ˣ
notes
[10] rafn ‘the raven’: From the ms. readings this word could be taken in various ways. (a) As a variant spelling of hrafn ‘raven’ (cf. the ramn ‘raven’ of Anon Leið 16/2VII); so most eds, printing either rafn or hrafn. The absence of <h> before <r> (or before <l>), which occurs elsewhere (though not consistently) in Krm, is a characteristic of Old Norwegian spelling (see ANG §289; cf. Finlay 2011 65) and has contributed to the view, most notably in Storm (1878, 196-9), that the poem is not originally Icelandic; see the Introduction and cf. also Olsen (1935, 79) and de Vries (1964-7, II, 39). Assuming ‘raven’ here allows all three of the beasts of battle of Old Norse poetry – wolf, eagle, and raven – to appear in one stanza, thus giving a representative view of them early in a poem very largely concerned with battles. (b) As Rafn (variant of Hrafn), a proper name, but nothing is known of the person so named (unless it is the king named Rafn in st. 6/8, below), and no previous ed. has adopted this. (c) The 6ˣ and 1824b readings might suggest Rán, the name of the sea-goddess, consort of Ægir (see LP: Rôn; SnE 1998, II, 499; SnE 2007, 13, 161), though only Valdimar Ásmundarson (Krm 1891) adopts this.