Anon Krm 19VIII/3 — fyr ‘off’
Hjuggu vér með hjörvi.
Háðum sverðs at morni
leik fyr Lindiseyri
við lofðunga þrenna.
Fár átti því fagna
— fell margr í gin vargi —
— haukr sleit hold með úlfi —
at heill þaðan kæmi.
Íra blóð í ægi
ærit fell um skæru.
Hjuggu vér með hjörvi. Háðum leik sverðs at morni við þrenna lofðunga fyr Lindiseyri. Fár átti fagna því, at kæmi heill þaðan; margr fell í gin vargi; haukr sleit hold með úlfi. Ærit blóð Íra fell í ægi um skæru.
We hewed with the sword. We engaged in the game of the sword [BATTLE] in the morning with three chieftains off Lindiseyrr. Hardly anyone could rejoice that he came back from there unharmed; many a man fell into the wolf’s gaping mouth; the hawk, along with the wolf, tore flesh. Abundant blood of the Irish flowed into the sea during the battle.
readings
[3] fyr: ‘[…]’ 147, á R702ˣ, LR, R693ˣ
notes
[3] fyr Lindiseyri ‘off Lindiseyrr’: Lindis- in this p. n. is reminiscent of two major English place-names, and the final element is dat. sg. of eyrr ‘a bank or spit of sand or gravel running into a river or sea’. The wording of the stanza makes it difficult to identify a specific location for Lindiseyrr, except that the spilling of Irish blood in l. 9 is presumably located there. (a) One possibility is Lindsey in North Lincolnshire, cf. Langenfelt (1920, 84 n. 1). The final element in the name Lindsey appears to derive from OE ēg (cf. ON ey) ‘island’, either directly or as a reformation (Watts 2004, 374; early spellings have variable endings but begin with Lindis-, Lindes-). This could have been replaced in a Norse form of the name by ‑eyrr. However, the reference to Irish blood in l. 9 of the present stanza makes an English location unlikely. (b) Rafn (1826, 135, following Johnstone 1782, 81) mentions Lindisfarne (now Holy Island), a tidal island off the coast of Northumberland, as a possible location. The name has traditionally been taken to mean ‘island of the travellers to and from Lindsey’, though other interpretations are possible (see Coates 2000; Watts 2004, 374; early spellings include Lindisfarnae 699-705, in a copy c. 900). The monastery was founded by Irish monks c. 635. (c) With the Irishmen of l. 9 in mind, Johnstone (1782, 81, 108) and Rafn (1826, 135) suggest the Irish province of Leinster as a possible location for Lindiseyrr, but the Irish name for it, the Old Irish ethnonym Laigin, ModIr. Laighin, seems too remote from Lindiseyrr in spelling and pronunciation to have formed the basis of the latter name.