Anon Krm 14VIII/4 — Norðimbra ‘Northumbri’
Hjuggu vér með hjörvi.
Hörð kom ríð á skjöldu;
nár fell niðr til jarðar
á Norðimbralandi.
Varat um eina óttu
öldum þörf at frýja
Hildar leiks, þar er hvassir
hjálmstofn bitu skjómar.
Benmána sá ek bresta;
brá því fira lífi.
Hjuggu vér með hjörvi. Hörð ríð kom á skjöldu; nár fell niðr til jarðar á Norðimbralandi. Um eina óttu varat þörf at frýja öldum leiks Hildar, þar er hvassir skjómar bitu hjálmstofn. Ek sá benmána bresta; því brá lífi fira.
We hewed with the sword. A hard storm assailed shields; a corpse fell down to earth in Northumbria. Once, at daybreak there was no cause to reproach people over the game of Hildr <valkyrie> [BATTLE], where sharp shiners <swords> bit [many a] helmet-peg [HEAD]. I saw wound-moons [SHIELDS] break; men’s lives ceased as a result.
readings
[4] Norðimbra‑: ‘Nordimbra’ with ‘Nordymbra’ in margin 6ˣ, ‘Nordhumra’ R702ˣ, LR, R693ˣ
notes
[4] á Norðimbralandi ‘in Northumbria’: Meaning originally, as Townend (1998, 59) has shown, ‘the land of the people north of the Humber’, Norðimbraland refers here, somewhat loosely, to the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria, of which York was the capital (Haywood 2000, 213-14, cf. 135). It was in York, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, that the Great Army of the vikings who landed in East Anglia in 865 put to death in 866 the rival Northumbrian kings Osberht and Ælle (see ASC I, 68-9; cf. Garmonsway 1954, 68, n. 1 and Wormald 1982, 142-3), and the slaying of the latter king, known in Norse tradition as Ella, is presented in Krm (st. 27/5-8, cf. sts 24/5-6 and 26/2-10), in Ragn and RagnSon, as well as in Saxo’s account (where he is named Hella) as an act of vengeance by the sons of Ragnarr loðbrók for their father’s death at King (H)ella’s hands in a snake-pit. Ælle is presented as king of England in the 1824b text of Ragn, but specifically as a king of Northumbria in RagnSon. Saxo’s location of Ragnarr’s death in Ireland appears to be based on a misreading by him of Humbros ‘Northumbrians’ as Hibernos ‘Irishmen’ (Saxo 2015 I, ix. 4. 38, 5. 1-5, pp. 660-5; cf. de Vries 1928d, 140; Rowe 2012, 100).