ǪrvOdd Lv 11VIII (Ǫrv 44)/3 — skip ‘ships’
Sigurðr, vartu eigi þar er sex hruðum
hábrynjuð skip fyr Hólmsnesi.
Vartu ok eigi vestr með Skolla,
þá er Engla gram aldri næmðum.
Sigurðr, vartu eigi, þar er hruðum sex hábrynjuð skip fyr Hólmsnesi. Vartu ok eigi vestr með Skolla, þá er næmðum gram Engla aldri.
Sigurðr, you were not there where we cleared six armoured ships before Hólmsnes. Nor were you in the west with Skolli, when we deprived the ruler of the English of life.
readings
[3] hábrynjuð skip: hardla snarliga 344a, hábyrðuð skip 343a
notes
[3] hábrynjuð skip ‘armoured ships’: The adj. hábrynjuðr ‘armoured’ occurs several times in poems describing warships and sea battles in late Viking-Age poetry; cf. Þfagr Sveinn 4/4II, Steinn Óldr 13/4II and ÞjóðA Har 5/7II. Jesch (2001a, 157-9) argues that this cpd adj. does not imply the use of armour-plating on Viking-Age ships, for which there is no known evidence, but rather refers to the protection given to the ships by the rows of shields arranged along the shield-rail. She also suggests that the element há- does not mean ‘high’, but derives from the noun hár ‘oarport, rowlock’. Both Skj B and Skald prefer 343a’s reading hábyrðuð ‘with a high side or gunwale’, a cpd not otherwise attested.