Þul Waves 1III/7 — elg ‘the elk’
Drǫfn skylr stál, þars stafni
straumfylgin þvær Bylgja;
Hefring brestr, en hristir
Himinglæva mar Vimrar.
Hrǫnn dregr grœn* ór grunni
gadd; svelr Blóðughadda;
elg venr Uðr ok Kolga
egghúfs við glym Dúfu.
Drǫfn skylr stál, þars straumfylgin Bylgja þvær stafni; Hefring brestr, en Himinglæva hristir mar Vimrar. Grœn* Hrǫnn dregr gadd ór grunni; Blóðughadda svelr; Uðr ok Kolga venr elg egghúfs við glym Dúfu.
Drǫfn washes the prow where the stream-following Bylgja rinses the stem; Hefring breaks and Himinglæva shakes the horse of Vimur <river> [SHIP]. The green Hrǫnn pulls the anchor-fluke from the bottom of the sea; Blóðughadda becomes cold; Uðr and Kólga accustom the elk of the sharp-edged hull [SHIP] to Dúfa’s din.
notes
[7, 8] elg egghúfs ‘the elk of the sharp-edged hull [SHIP]’: The exact sense of egg- in egghúfr is not clear. As a first element in compounds, egg- usually means ‘(sharp) edge (of a weapon)’ (LP: egg f. 2). That meaning has been adopted in the present edn, in which ‘sharp-edged’ is taken to refer to a specific part of the hull, perhaps where the hull tapers to the prow. Cf. meginhúfr lit. ‘main strake’ (the strongest strake in the hull) and róðrarhúfr ‘lit. ‘rowing-strake’ (the strake in the hull where the oarports were). According to LP: egghúfr, egg- might also refer to the oval shape of a ship’s hull (hence from ON egg n. ‘egg’), which is hardly appropriate in the present context. For elgr ‘elk’, see Note to ESk Lv 7/3.
kennings
- elg egghúfs — the elk of the sharp-edged hull [SHIP]
grammar
case: acc.