Bjbp Jóms 32I/7 — knátti
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.
readings
[7] knátti: náði all others
notes
[7] knátti ben blása ‘wounds swelled’: Knátti, lit. ‘could’, is a pleonastic auxiliary. Blása ‘swell’ is used impersonally (see CVC: blása III), so ben ‘wound(s)’ is acc. and presumably pl. The same construction is assumed in Fms 12, 44, 245 and Skj B, but blása is taken to refer to a noise made by the wounds (also LP: blása 4, where it is the only example). An alternative construal is that the understood subject of knátti is the hail-storm and blása is transitive, with ben as its object, hence ‘it blasted wounds’.