Anon Krm 20VIII/7 — Ála ‘Ála’
Anon Krm 20VIIIHjuggu vér með hjörvi.
Hárfagran sá ek røkkva
meyjar dreng at morni
ok málvini ekkju.
Varat, sem varmar laugar
vínkers Njörun bæri
oss í Álasundi,
áðr en Örn konungr felli.
Varat, sem unga ekkju
í öndvegi kyssa.
Hjuggu vér með hjörvi. Ek sá hárfagran dreng meyjar ok málvini ekkju røkkva at morni. Varat, sem Njörun vínkers bæri oss varmar laugar í Álasundi, áðr en Örn konungr felli. Varat, sem kyssa unga ekkju í öndvegi.
We hewed with the sword. I saw the fine-haired young knight of a maiden [LOVER] and the close friends of a widow [LOVERS] weaken in the morning. It was not as if a Njǫrun <goddess> of the wine-vessel [WOMAN] were carrying hot baths for us in Álasund, before King Ǫrn fell. It was not like kissing a young woman in the high seat.
readings
[7] Ála‑: ‘[…]a’ 147, ‘ila‑’ R702ˣ, LR, ‘Ila’ R693ˣ
notes
[7] í Álasundi ‘in Álasund’: Three possible locations are canvassed here, depending on which of the ms. readings is favoured, viz. Yell Sound in the Shetland Islands, Ålesund in Norway, and the island of Islay in the Inner Hebrides. The Shetland and Hebrides locations would be consistent with the fact that the places mentioned in this part of Krm (sts 11-19; 21, 24) seem to be in the British Isles, and this edn favours identification with Yell Sound. (a) Álasund has been identified with Jalasund, i.e. Yell Sound, the name of the strait running between the islands of Yell and Mainland in the Shetland Isles (recorded in 1512 as Jælaswndh i Hiæltandh ‘Yell Sound in Shetland’; Indrebø 1929, 165). Álasund could be seen as a misspelling or possibly as a Norse form reflecting the loss of initial [j], in Old Norse but not in other Germanic languages, by c. 600 AD, and giving rise to cognates such as ON/ModIcel. ár, ModGer. Jahr ‘year’ (see ANG §231 Anm. 2; LP: Álasund, citing CVC (CVC: I, B. III)). The name Jala f. is recorded in Þul Eyja 4/8III as an island-name, and Jali m. in Þul Fjarða 1/1III as a fjord-name (see also ÍO: 2 Jala for the identification of these names with Yell and Yell Sound, respectively). (b) Álasund could possibly refer to the harbour town of Ålesund in Møre and Romsdal, western Norway. In the entry for Ålesund in Sandnes and Stemshaug (1997, 512), the unrecorded Old Norse form of this name is reconstructed as *Álasund, and the first element in the name is explained as gen. pl. of áll ‘eel’, but no early forms are given – whether because Álasund in the present stanza form was not taken into account, or because it was not believed to refer to Ålesund. (c) Mss R702ˣ, LR and R693ˣ record the form ‘Ilasundi’, a reading chosen only by CPB among earlier eds. ON Íl f. is recorded as the name of the island of Islay in the Inner Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland; see Bkrepp Magndr 8/3II, Sturl Hrafn 7/7II and Þul Eyja 5/1III. The name is of uncertain, possibly Celtic origin (see ÍO: Íl). While gen. sg. Ílar- might have been expected as the first element in Ílasund, there can be little difficulty in identifying the name as the Sound of Islay, the narrow strait between Islay and the island of Jura to its east.