Varða, gims sem gerði
Gerðr bjúglimum herða
— gnýr óx Fjǫlnis fúra —
farlig sæing jarli,
þás hringfôum Hanga
hrynserk Viðurr brynju
— hruðusk riðmarar Róða
rastar — varð at kasta.
Varða, sem farlig Gerðr gims gerði jarli sæing bjúglimum herða — gnýr fúra Fjǫlnis óx —, þás Viðurr brynju varð at kasta hringfôum hrynserk Hanga; riðmarar rastar Róða hruðusk.
It did not come about as if an attractive Gerðr <goddess> of the fire [WOMAN] made a bed for the jarl with her curving branches of the shoulders [ARMS] — the din of the fires of Fjǫlnir <= Óðinn> [SWORDS > BATTLE] increased —, when the Viðurr <= Óðinn> of the mail-shirt [WARRIOR = Hákon] had to throw off his ring-depleted clanging shirt of Hangi <= Óðinn> [MAIL-SHIRT]; the riding horses of the path of Róði <sea-king> [SEA > SHIPS] were cleared.
[1, 2] Gerðr gims ‘Gerðr <goddess> of the fire [WOMAN]’: (a) The determinant gims probably refers to the fire of the hearth. Woman-kennings with ‘fire’ as determinant are not common, but see Ǫlv Lv 1/7, Mgóð Lv 2/6II and Meissner 417 for parallels. (b) Gim in the sense ‘gem, jewel’ would supply a more standard determinant for a woman-kenning, but this sense does not seem to occur in early skaldic poetry, although gimsteinn ‘jewel, gemstone’ occurs in later Christian poetry, and gim ‘jewel’ appears in fagrgim ‘fair jewel’ and ljósgim ‘light-jewel [SUN]’ in Anon Leið 2/2VII and 35/4VII, respectively. (c) For Finnur Jónsson’s interpretation of the woman-kenning, see Note to l. 2.