Anon Krm 4VIII/5 — upp ‘up’
Hjuggu vér með hjörvi.
Heðins kvánar varð auðit,
þá er vér Helsingja heimtum
til heimsala Óðins.
Lögðum upp í Ívu;
oddr náði þá bíta;
öll var unda gjálfri
á sú roðin heitu.
Grenjaði brandr við brynjur
bensildr; klufuz skildir.
Hjuggu vér með hjörvi. Kvánar Heðins varð auðit, þá er vér heimtum Helsingja til heimsala Óðins. Lögðum upp í Ívu; þá náði oddr bíta; öll sú á var roðin heitu gjálfri unda. Brandr grenjaði við brynjur, bensildr; skildir klufuz.
We hewed with the sword. The woman of Heðinn <legendary hero> [= Hildr (hildr ‘battle’)] was at hand when we brought the people of Hälsingland to the dwellings of Óðinn <god> [= Valhǫll]. We proceeded up the Ífa <river>; then the sword-point managed to bite; that whole river was reddened by a hot surge of wounds [BLOOD]. The sword roared on coats of mail, [as did] wound-herrings [ARROWS/SPEARS]; shields were cloven.
notes
[5] upp í Ívu ‘up the Ífa <river>’: This name is spelt Ífu by Rafn (1826), Pfeiffer (1860), Wisén (1886-9) and Valdimar Ásmundarson (Krm 1891). The combination of adv. and prep. indicates, together with the word á ‘river’ in l. 8, that a river is here in question, although it cannot be identified. A river of the same name, also unidentified, is mentioned in OStór 7/8, and may also be referred to in Egill Lv 26/1V (Eg 33); see Note there. Bugge (in Rygh 1897-1936, VIII, 179), sees Ífa f. as related to the word ýr m. ‘yew (tree)’, and as originally the name of the river, now named Frøysåna, that runs past the farms named Ivedal and Iveland in the Iveland county of the Nedenes province (now Aust-Agder) in south-eastern Norway, the first element in these two farm names being formed, according to Bugge, from Ífu, the gen. sg. of the river-name. Olsen on the other hand (in Rygh 1897-1936, X, 56-7), sees these two farm names, and Ivesdal in Stavanger (now Rogaland), as more probably containing nouns (ívi n. or ívir m.) referring to yew-trees as such. He also derives Ífing f., the name of the mythical river which, according to Vafþr 16/1-3, divides the realm of the gods from that of the giants, and which never freezes, from the same root. An alternative possibility, mentioned by Olsen (cf. also ÍO: Ífa, Ífing), is that the river-names are related to MHG ifer, ModGer. Eifer ‘zeal, fervour’, and that the idea of a river with a fiercely flowing current lies behind them. The ‘modo’, ‘moþo’ readings of 1824b and 6ˣ give the form móðu (acc. sg. of móða f. ‘(large, sluggish) river’). However, this reading can be excluded because it does not provide a second alliterating stave on the fifth syllable of an odd line (Gade 1995a, 4).