Anon Krm 9VIII/5 — ský ‘clouds’
Hjuggu vér með hjörvi.
Háðum rendr í dreyra,
þá er benstara bræddum
fyr Borgundarhólmi.
Hreggský slituz hringa;
hratt álmr af sér málmi;
Völnir fell at vígi;
varat einn konungr meiri.
Val rak vítt of strandir;
vargr fagnaði tafni.
Hjuggu vér með hjörvi. Háðum rendr í dreyra, þá er bræddum benstara fyr Borgundarhólmi. Hreggský hringa slituz; álmr hratt af sér málmi; Völnir fell at vígi; varat einn konungr meiri. Val rak vítt of strandir; vargr fagnaði tafni.
We hewed with the sword. We steeped shields in blood when we fed the wound-starling [RAVEN/EAGLE] off Bornholm. Storm-clouds of swords [SHIELDS] were destroyed; the bow thrust forth metal; Vǫlnir fell in the battle; not a single king was greater. The slain were scattered far and wide over the beaches; the wolf rejoiced in its prey.
readings
[5] Hreggský slituz hringa (‘hreggský slítv hringa’): ‘[…]g sky slitu’ 147, ‘hregg sky slitu hringa’ with ‘Reggsky slitu rander Worm.’ in margin 6ˣ, ‘Regnský slitu Rander’ R702ˣ, ‘reggsky slitu rander’ LR, R693ˣ
notes
[5] hreggský hringa ‘storm-clouds of swords [SHIELDS]’: Hringa is here taken as gen. pl. of hringr ‘ring’ as pars pro toto for ‘sword’ (LP: hringr 2) and as the determinant in a kenning for ‘shields’, with hreggský ‘storm-clouds’ as its base-word (cf. Meissner 168-9). The emendation of slitu, 3rd pers. pl. pret. of slíta ‘rend, tear’, to slituz, imparting passive function to the verb, gives the sense ‘shields were destroyed’. The present ed. is here following Finnur Jónsson (1893b), Skj B and Skald. By contrast, Rafn (1826), Pfeiffer (1860), Wisén (1886-9) and Valdimar Ásmundarson (Krm 1891) read hreggský (nom. pl.) slitu (h)ringa, acc. pl. ‘storm-clouds tore rings’, with ‘storm-clouds’ thought of as referring to showers of arrows, and ‘rings’ as referring to the rings or links forming a coat of mail. This reading is unsatisfactory in relying too heavily on a metaphorical understanding of hreggský ‘storm-clouds’ without the support of a specifying determinant that might justify it.
kennings
- Hreggský hringa — Storm-clouds of swords [SHIELDS]
grammar
case: nom.
number: pl.