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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Þul Sverða 2III/8 — hræfrakki ‘carrion-spear’

Skolkr, skerkir, stúfr,         Skrýmir, Laufi,
ǫltirr, langbarðr         ok ormþvari,
Leggbiti, kyrr, galmr         ok Leifnisgrand,
herberi, Hneitir         ok hræfrakki.

Skolkr, skerkir, stúfr, Skrýmir, Laufi, ǫltirr, langbarðr ok ormþvari, Leggbiti, kyrr, galmr ok Leifnisgrand, herberi, Hneitir ok hræfrakki.

Frightener, noise-maker, stump, Skrýmir, Laufi, ale-blade, Lombardic [sword] and serpent-borer, Leggbiti, quiet one, clanging one and Leifnir’s injury, war-striker, Hneitir and carrion-spear.

readings

[8] hræfrakki: so C, ‘hafrakan’ R, , ‘hafraka’ A, B

notes

[8] hræfrakki (m.) ‘carrion-spear’: This variant is found only in C, while the other mss have the obscure forms ‘hafrakan’ (R, ) or ‘hafraka’ (A, B and the LaufE mss) (perhaps ‘sea-borne one’; see ÍO: hafrakan, hafraka). The C variant is supported by hræfrakki in GSúrs Lv 1/1V (Gísl 2), although in that stanza hræfrakki is a poetic term for ‘spear’ (see frakka f. ‘Frankish [spear]’, Þul Spjóts l. 7), which was most likely misinterpreted by the compiler of the present þula as a heiti for ‘sword’ (Falk 1914b, 52, 75; ÍF 6, 11 n. 4).

grammar

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