ǪrvOdd Ævdr 62VIII (Ǫrv 132)/4 — gekk ‘left’
Fleiri hefir mína fóstbræðr drepit,
Garðar ok Sírni; gekk skegg af flagði.
Var hann engum líkr at yfirliti,
ok kallaðr síðan Kvillánus blesi.
Hefir drepit fleiri fóstbræðr mína, Garðar ok Sírni; skegg gekk af flagði. Hann var engum líkr at yfirliti, ok kallaðr síðan Kvillánus blesi.
He has killed more of my foster-brothers, Garðarr and Sírnir; the beard left the ogre. He was like no one in appearance, and was afterwards called Kvillánus blesi (‘Blaze’).
readings
[4] gekk skegg af flagði: gekk skeggi af 173ˣ
notes
[4] skegg gekk af flagði ‘the beard left the ogre’: This clause alludes to one of Oddr’s encounters with Ǫgmundr, following the death of Vignir, in which Oddr comes near to killing Ǫgmundr, who, however, manages to get away by being swallowed up by the earth. An earlier stage in this episode is also the subject of ǪgmEyb Lv 1-3 (Ǫrv 31-3). At a particularly desperate point in a hand-to-hand encounter between Oddr and Ǫgmundr, Oddr cuts off his rival’s buttocks (ON klámhǫgg ‘shame-stroke’, a shaming act symbolising castration; cf. Meulengracht Sørensen 1983, 68-70) and then gets hold of his beard with both hands, jerking it so hard that the whole beard and the face beneath it right up to the forehead are ripped off (cf. Ǫrv 1888, 136). Although Oddr can never kill Ǫgmundr outright, according to the saga, these two acts of cutting off his buttocks and removing his beard and face are to be interpreted as a symbolic castration and forced submission; see Ǫrv 32, Note to [All].
grammar
Verbs: Strong Verbs
The stem of the subjunctive pl. is i-mutation of the indicative pl..
lúka ‘shut, end’
| Indicative | Subjunctive | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present | Past | Present | Past | ||
| Active voice | |||||
| sing. | 1 2 3 | lýk lýkr lýkr | lauk laukt lauk | lúka lúkir lúki | lyka lykir lyki |
| pl. | 1 2 3 | lúkum lúkið lúka | lukum lukuð luku | lúkim lúkið lúki | lykim lykið lyki |
| infinitive pres. part. past part. | lúka lúkandi lúkinn, lúkin, lúkit | ||||
| Middle voice | |||||
| sing. | 1 2 3 | lýkumk lýksk lýksk | laukumk laukzk lauksk | lúkumk lúkisk lúkisk | lykumk lykisk lykisk |
| pl. | 1 2 3 | lúkumk lúkizk lúkask | lukumk lukuzk lukusk | lúkimk lúkizk lúkisk | lykimk lykizk lykisk |
| infinitive pres. part. past part. | lúkask lúkandisk lúkizk | ||||