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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Anon Krm 7VIII/4 — Eysteinn ‘Eysteinn’

Hjuggu vér með hjörvi.
Hátt grenjuðu rottar,
áðr en á Ullarakri
Eysteinn konungr felli.
Gengum gulli fáðir
grundar vals af bröndum
— rækyndill smaug rauðar
rítr — at hjálma móti.
Svíra virtr ór sárum
sveif of hjarna kleifar.

Hjuggu vér með hjörvi. Rottar grenjuðu hátt, áðr en Eysteinn konungr felli á Ullarakri. Gengum, fáðir gulli af bröndum grundar vals, at móti hjálma; rækyndill smaug rauðar rítr. Virtr svíra sveif ór sárum of kleifar hjarna.

We hewed with the sword. Swords roared loudly before King Eysteinn fell at Ullarakr. We proceeded to a meeting of helmets [BATTLE], decked with gold from the flames of the landing place of the falcon [ARM > GOLD RINGS]; the corpse-candle [SWORD] penetrated red shields. The wort of the neck [BLOOD] flowed from wounds over the cliffs of the brain [SHOULDERS].

readings

[4] Eysteinn konungr felli: ‘[…] konungur f[...]ll[...]’ 147

notes

[4] Eysteinn konungr ‘King Eysteinn’: This Eysteinn, here stated to have died at Ullarakr, may well be identical with the Eysteinn who, in RagnSon (Hb 1892-6, 459-62) and Ragn (Ragn 1906-8, 132-50), is stated to have ruled in Uppsala, Sweden, to have caused the deaths of Eiríkr and Agnarr, Ragnarr’s sons by his first wife Þóra, and to have been defeated and slain in his own kingdom by an avenging army led by the sons of Ragnarr’s second marriage and their mother Áslaug. If so, then the Ullarakr mentioned here as the scene of Eysteinn’s death is perhaps the place of that name close to Uppsala that is mentioned in ÓHHkr chs 78 and 94 (ÍF 27, 111-12, 155), rather than somewhere in Skåne, cf. the previous Note. Clearly to be identified with the Eysteinn of RagnSon and Ragn is Ostenus, upon whom, later in Saxo’s account (Saxo 2015, I, ix. 5. 6, pp. 666-7), Agnerus (= Agnarr), son of Regnerus Lothbrog by his second wife Thora, seeks to avenge the death of his half-brother Ericus (= Eiríkr), son of Regnerus by his third wife Suanlogha, in Sweden.

grammar

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