Þá frák él it illa
œða Hǫlgabrúði;
glumði hagl á hlífum
harða grimt ór norðri,
þar er í ormfrán augu
ýtum skýja grjóti
— því knátti ben blása —
barði hreggi keyrðu.
Þá frák Hǫlgabrúði œða it illa él; harða grimt hagl ór norðri glumði á hlífum, þar er grjóti skýja, keyrðu hreggi, barði í ormfrán augu ýtum; því knátti ben blása.
Then I have heard Hǫlgi’s bride [= Þorgerðr] stirred up the terrible blizzard; very cruel hail from the north resounded on shields, where the gravel of clouds [HAIL], driven by the storm, beat in the snake-flashing eyes of men; therefore wounds swelled.
[2] ‑brúði: brúðar all others
[2] Hǫlgabrúði (f. acc. sg.) ‘Hǫlgi’s bride [= Þorgerðr]’: This is Hákon jarl’s patroness, the giantess Þorgerðr. According to SnE (1998, I, 60), Hǫlgi was the eponymous ruler of Hálogaland (Hålogaland) and Þorgerðr was his daughter (and hence brúðr may have the more general sense ‘woman’ here, cf. LP: brúðr 3); sacrifices were made to both of them. The first element of Hǫlgabrúðr also occurs elsewhere as Hǫrga-, Hǫrða- and Hǫlða- and the second as ‑troll; see further Jvs 1962, 36-7, 51-2; McKinnell (2002); Røthe (2007). The R reading ‑brúði adopted here (as in Skj B and Skald) forms an acc. with inf. construction with (frák ...) œða ‘(I have heard ...) stirred up’, lit. ‘(I have heard ...) to stir up’, so that Hǫlgabrúðr is the agent who raises the storm. The ÓT reading f. gen. sg. -brúðar would qualify él ‘blizzard’ and œðask would be intransitive, hence ‘I have heard the terrible storm of Hǫlgi’s bride raged’.