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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Sigv Erlfl 4I/2 — firða ‘men’

Réð eigi grið, gýgjar,
geðstirðr konungs firða,
skers þótt skúrir þyrrit,
Skjalgs hefnir sér nefna.
En varðkeri virðir
víðbotn né kømr síðan
glyggs á gjalfri leygðan
geirs ofrhugi meiri.

Geðstirðr hefnir Skjalgs réð eigi nefna sér grið firða konungs, þótt skúrir skers gýgjar þyrrit. En meiri virðir geirs, ofrhugi, né kømr síðan á víðbotn varðkeri glyggs, leygðan gjalfri.

The tough-minded avenger of Skjálgr [= Erlingr] did not ask for quarter from the king’s men, even though the showers of the skerry of the axe [SHIELD > BATTLE] did not let up. And a greater appreciator of the spear [WARRIOR], over-bold one, will not come afterwards onto the wide base of the guarding-vessel of the storm [SKY > EARTH], washed by the sea.

readings

[2] konungs firða: firða konungs 321ˣ;    firða: virða 73aˣ, fyrða Holm4, 325VII, friða 325V

notes

[1, 2, 4] nefna sér grið firða konungs ‘ask for quarter from the king’s men’: Lit. ‘name for himself quarter of the king’s men’. The construction nefna sér grið + acc./gen. appears to be unparalleled and the interpretation adopted here (and similarly ÍF 27 and Jón Skaptason 1983) is contextual. The proposed construction resembles beiða griða (gen. pl.) ‘ask for quarter’, found in legal contexts, with the person being asked in the acc. (see CVC: beiða I). Skj B instead construes firða konungs with the battle-kenning, giving kongens mænds angreb ‘the attack of the king’s men’.

grammar

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