Sigv ErfÓl 21I/5 — hers ‘of the army’
Ôleifr réð it øfra
andprútt hǫfuð landi
fulla vetr, áðr felli,
fimmtán, á því láni.
Hverr hafi hers inn nørðra
heims enda sér kenndan
— skjǫldungr helzk an skyldi
skemr — landreki inn fremri?
Ôleifr, andprútt hǫfuð, réð landi it øfra fulla fimmtán vetr, áðr felli á því láni. Hverr landreki hers inn fremri hafi kenndan sér inn nørðra enda heims? Skjǫldungr helzk skemr an skyldi.
Óláfr, the proud-spirited chief, ruled the land higher up for fifteen full years, before he died on that allotted land. Which better land-ruler of the army [KING] had claimed the more northerly end of the world? The monarch survived for a shorter time than he should have.
readings
[5] Hverr hafi hers inn nørðra: enn hverr hans eð neðra 73aˣ; hers: hans 325VI, 325V, Bb, hann 321ˣ, ‘hęzt’ 61, ‘hælz’ 325VII, ‘fædzst’ Flat, ‘hefnzt’ Tóm
notes
[5, 8] landreki hers ‘land-ruler of the army [KING]’: Landreki ‘land-ruler’ usually occurs without any qualifier in the praise poetry of the C11th (see Þul Konunga 2/6III), though later it can form the base-word of kennings, e.g. the C12th ESk Hardr II 1/6, 8II landreki Dana ‘land-ruler of the Danes [DANISH KING = Eiríkr]’. Kock (NN §§666, 2988C) argues for taking landreki hers together, which is the construal adopted here. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) takes hers ‘of the army’ with skjǫldungr ‘monarch’ in the intercalary, producing a more complex word order.
kennings
- landreki hers inn fremri — better land-ruler of the army [KING]