StarkSt Vík 27VIII (Gautr 35)/3 — nafn ‘the name’
Þess eyrendis, at mér Þórr um skóp
níðings nafn, nauð margskonar;
hlaut ek óhróðingr ilt at vinna.
Þess eyrendis, at Þórr um skóp mér nafn níðings, margskonar nauð; ek hlaut óhróðingr at vinna ilt.
With this result, that Þórr shaped for me the name of traitor, distress of many kinds; inglorious, I was fated to perform evil deeds.
notes
[3] nafn níðings ‘the name of traitor’: The Old Norse noun níðingr has a semi-legal sense and encompasses the semantic range ‘wretch, worthless man, traitor, apostate’, terms that indicate that the person in question was both socially and morally undesirable (cf. Meulengracht Sørensen 1983, 31-2). The noun is strongly condemnatory, and derives from the noun níð ‘insult, shaming slander’, itself a term defined in both early Norwegian and Icelandic law codes (NGL I, 70; Grg II, 392). In Starkaðr’s case, his crime is that of treachery towards his lord, King Víkarr, whom he killed unintentionally in what he was led by Óðinn to believe was a mock sacrifice.