Þhorn Gldr 2I/4 — rœks ‘cultivator’
Gerðisk glamma ferðar
gný-Þróttr jǫru dróttar
helkannandi hlenna
hlymrœks of trǫð glymja,
áðr út á mar mœtir
mannskœðr lagar tanna
ræsinaðr ok rausnar
rak vébrautar nǫkkva.
Gný-Þróttr jǫru, helkannandi dróttar hlenna hlymrœks, gerðisk glymja of trǫð ferðar glamma, áðr mannskœðr mœtir vébrautar rak nǫkkva tanna lagar ok ræsinaðr rausnar út á mar.
The din-Þróttr <= Óðinn> of battle [WARRIOR = Haraldr], condemning the band of thieves of the battle-cultivator to death, made clangour on the path of the pack of wolves [HEATH], before the man-harming attender of the standard-road [BATTLEFIELD > WARRIOR] drove [his] ships of the teeth of the sea [STONES (steinar ‘colours’)] and the excellent adder of the forecastle [SHIP] out to sea.
readings
notes
[4] hlymrœks ‘of the battle-cultivator’: The second element of the cpd as preserved in the mss (‘-ræks’, ‘-rœks’, ‘-reks’) is normalised to ‑rœks (see Note to Yt 25/7). (a) This edn interprets hlymrœks as a nominalised form of an adj. referring to Haraldr’s opponent. This produces a structural pattern for ll. 1-4 which closely matches the first helmingr of st. 1 (see Note to ll. 1-4). A drawback to this solution, however, is that hlym- ‘noise (of battle)’ normally needs a determinant, and various alternatives have therefore been proposed. (b) Finnur Jónsson (1884, 71; Hkr 1893-1901, IV; Skj B) and Eggert Ó. Brím (ÓT 1892, 345) combine it with their emendation of Þróttr to Þróttar <= Óðinn>. Without emendation, this solution is not possible. (c) Sveinbjörn Egilsson (LP (1860): hlenni), Kock (NN §230) and Hkr 1991 take hlymrœks to be an adj. and combine it with hlenna (gen. sg.), thus ‘noise-making thief’. (d) Fidjestøl (1982, 77) reads of trǫð ferðar hlymrœks glamma ‘on the path of the troop of the noise-making wolf’. However, hlymrœks glamma is gen. sg., whereas in most of the comparable cases ferð ‘troop’ is construed with a gen. pl., cf. LP: ferð. (e) Guðbrandur Vigfússon (CPB II, 30 n.), followed by ÍF 26, attempts an entirely different interpretation according to which the word is the Irish p. n. Limerick. He connects Hlymræks to hlenna ‘thieves’. Helkannandi dróttar hlenna Hlymreks ‘the one who hands the band of thieves of Limerick over to Hel’ then forms an apposition to the subject of the sentence, praising him for a presumed campaign against the Irish. However, the Irish are not mentioned elsewhere in the poem, only the Scots (see st. 8/6), and the structural parallels between the first helmingar of sts 1 and 2 favour the interpretation (a).