Anon Krm 26VIII/10 — hjörtun ‘hearts’
Hjuggu vér með hjörvi.
Hér mundu nú allir
burir Áslaugar bröndum
bitrum hildi vekja,
ef vandliga vissi
um viðfarar ossar,
hvé ófáir ormar
eitrfullir mik slíta.
Móðernis fekk ek mínum
mögum, svá at hjörtun dugðu.
Hjuggu vér með hjörvi. Allir burir Áslaugar mundu nú vekja hildi hér bitrum bröndum, ef vissi vandliga um viðfarar ossar, hvé ófáir eitrfullir ormar slíta mik. Ek fekk mögum mínum móðernis, svá at hjörtun dugðu.
We hewed with the sword. All the sons of Áslaug would now start a battle here with sharp swords, if they knew fully about our treatment, how numerous poisonous snakes are tearing at me. I gave my sons such a mother that their hearts stood firm.
readings
[10] hjörtun dugðu: ‘hiort[…] d[...](dv)’(?) 147, ‘hiortu duga’ 6ˣ, ‘hiortun duga’ LR
notes
[9-10] ek fekk mögum mínum móðernis, svá at hjörtun dugðu ‘I gave my sons such a mother that their hearts stood firm’: Lit. ‘I provided a maternal origin for my sons so that the hearts availed [them]’. In l. 9, móðernis, meaning strictly ‘maternal origin’ or ‘motherhood’, is the gen. object of fekk, 1st pers. sg pret. of fá, used here in the sense ‘give, provide’, with the gen. of what is given and the dat. of the receiver, see Note to st. 2/5-6, 8, above. The present ed. follows the example of the earliest eds up to and including Valdimar Ásmundarson (Krm 1891) in retaining the word ek ‘I’ here, which other eds, from and including Wisén (1886-9), omit, presumably for metrical reasons. — [10] hjörtun dugðu ‘their hearts stood firm’: The same phrase is found in the sg. in RvHbreiðm Hl 34/1III Hjartat dugði … ‘The heart helped …’.