Þrévetran mik þaðan af flutti
Hrosshárs-Grani til Hörðalands.
Nam ek á Aski upp at vaxa;
sákat niðja á níu vetrum.
Hrosshárs-Grani flutti mik þrévetran þaðan af til Hörðalands. Ek nam at vaxa upp á Aski; sákat niðja á níu vetrum.
Hrosshárs-Grani (‘Horse-hair Grani’) carried me off from there at the age of three years to Hordaland. I grew up at Ask; I did not see my kinsmen for nine winters.
[8] vetrum: sumrum 152, papp11ˣ
[8] vetrum ‘winters’: Years were usually measured in winters rather than summers in early Scandinavia, as in other Germanic cultures. Sumrum may have been chosen here by some scribes out of a false belief that the alliteration of ll. 7-8 was on <s> rather than <n>. The age of twelve (9+3) was considered the age of adulthood in early Scandinavia, though later medieval sources place it at sixteen (cf. Grg Ib, 22; Dennis et al. 1980-2000, II, 46).