Anon Gát 1III/6 — buðlung ‘king’
Ek sá fljúga fugla marga:
aldrtjón Ellu, eggdauða menn,
ben bíldskorna, buðlung Dana,
þjónustumey, þunga báru.
Ek sá marga fugla fljúga: aldrtjón Ellu, eggdauða menn, bíldskorna ben, buðlung Dana, þjónustumey, þunga báru.
I saw many birds fly: life-loss of Ælla <Northumbrian king>, men killed by the sword, lancet-scored wound, king of Danes, serving-girl, heavy wave.
readings
[6] buðlung: ok buðlung 167b 3ˣ
notes
[6] buðlung Dana ‘king of Danes’: I.e. Skjǫldungr (so Skj B), one of the Skjǫldungar, the Danish royal dynasty. Tradition traces the line back to Óðinn. A skjǫldungr is also a sheldrake or shelduck, Tadorna tadorna, named among the heiti for birds in Þul Fugla 3/8. SnE 1848 gives the solution kráka ‘crow’, perhaps, although the homonym is not exact, in reference to Hrólfr kraki ‘Pole-ladder’, a legendary Danish king. It is not clear where this solution is taken from, as 743ˣ is not annotated here and 1562ˣ gives hœnir, i.e. hœnur ‘hens’ (Fritzner: hœna). Hœnir was one of the Æsir (see e.g. Simek 1993, 156), and some scholars have suggested he may have been able to take the form of a bird (e.g. Turville-Petre 1964, 141-2 and 142 n. 34; see Note to Þjóð Haustl 4/2), but there is no reason he should be particularly associated with the Danes.