Anon Krm 25VIII/3 — föður ‘of the father’
Hjuggu vér með hjörvi.
Hitt lægir mik jafnan,
at Baldrs föður bekki
búna veit ek at sumblum.
Drekkum bjór af bragði
ór bjúgviðum hausa;
sýtir ei drengr við dauða
dýrs at Fjölnis húsum.
Eigi kem ek með æðru
orð til Viðris hallar.
Hjuggu vér með hjörvi. Hitt lægir mik jafnan, at ek veit bekki föður Baldrs búna at sumblum. Drekkum bjór af bragði ór bjúgviðum hausa; drengr sýtir ei við dauða at húsum dýrs Fjölnis. Ek kem eigi með orð æðru til hallar Viðris.
We hewed with the sword. It always makes me laugh to know that the benches of the father of Baldr <god> [= Óðinn] are prepared for banquets. We’ll soon be drinking beer out of the curved trees of skulls [DRINKING HORNS]; a fellow does not regret death in the dwellings of glorious Fjǫlnir <= Óðinn> [= Valhǫll]. I do not come with words of fear to the hall of Viðrir <= Óðinn> [= Valhǫll].
readings
[3] föður: ‘(f)odur’(?) 147, ‘fedur’ 6ˣ, ‘fódurz’ R693ˣ
notes
[3] bekki föður Baldrs ‘the benches of the father of Baldr <god> [= Óðinn]’: According to Gylf (SnE 2005, 23), Baldr is the second son of Óðinn after Þórr, and Óðinn’s oldest legitimate son. The story of his popularity among the gods, his tragic killing as a result of Loki’s treachery, and the fruitless attempts of the gods to bring him back from the realm of the dead, told most fully in Gylf (SnE 2005, 45-9), is well known. The only other occurrence of ‘the father of Baldr’ as a kenning for Óðinn, however, appears to be in Anon (Styrb) 1/6I, a stanza spoken by a finngálkn ‘monster’ in Styrb. The word bekki, acc. pl. of bekkr m. ‘bench’, refers here metonymically to Valhǫll (see also Notes to sts 4/4 and 28/9), where the speaker of Krm, as he indicates here, expects to enjoy after death the hospitality of Óðinn at a bench-lined banqueting table.
kennings
- föður Baldrs — of the father of Baldr <god> [= Óðinn]
grammar
case: gen.