HSt Rst 35I/3 — Njǫrðr ‘Njǫrðr’
Eigi einkar lága
ek fæ ina þriðju,
hyr-Njǫrðr, hróðri stœrða
hóps tvískelfða drôpu.
Slíkr hôttr — svá munk vátta —
sjaldstundum verðr fundinn;
herr prúðr hǫrvi kvæða
hafi gagn, en ek þagna.
Hóps hyr-Njǫrðr, ek fæ ina þriðju eigi einkar lága tvískelfða drôpu stœrða hróðri. Slíkr hôttr verðr sjaldstundum fundinn; munk svá vátta; herr prúðr hǫrvi hafi gagn kvæða, en ek þagna.
Njǫrðr <god> of the fire of the bay [(lit. ‘fire-Njǫrðr of the bay’) GOLD > MAN], I increase with praise the third not extremely poor drápa in tvískelft. Such a metre is rarely found; I can attest to that; may the troop splendid in linen [women] have benefit from the poem [lit. poems], and I fall silent.
readings
[3] Njǫrðr: ‘morðr’ Bb
notes
[3, 4] hóps hyr-Njǫrðr ‘Njǫrðr <god> of the fire of the bay [(lit. ‘fire-Njǫrðr of the bay’) GOLD > MAN]’: (a) This edn follows Konráð Gíslason (1895-7) and Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) in emending the nonsensical ms. reading ‘morðr’ to Njǫrðr, which is only a matter of reading <ni> instead of <m>, and ms. ‘hofs’ to hóps. The kenning is taken here as a vocative directed to the recipient of the poem, but it is uncertain whether this would be Óláfr or an unknown commissioner of the poem. Alternatively it could be appositional to ek ‘I’ (l. 2), as seemingly assumed in Skj B. (b) Kock (NN §2097) argued against a vocative warrior-kenning instoppad mitt ibland fruntimren ‘squeezed in among the women’, as he puts it, and emends Njǫrðr to an endingless dat. sg. form Njǫrð (a younger variant on Nirði; cf. ANG §§394, 395.3). He sees the kenning as elaborating on drôpu and referring to the recipient of the praise-poem, King Óláfr; he cites parallels in st. 1/3 and st. 34/5-6, and further parallels in NN §2543A, C.
kennings
- Hóps hyr-Njǫrðr, — Njǫrðr <god> of the fire of the bay, [MAN]
grammar
case: nom.