GunnLeif Merl I 16VIII/5 — hœknir ‘The vicious’
Gerisk sókn mikil snáka tveggja;
gapa grimmliga grundar belti.
Hǫggvask hœknir hauðrs gyrðingar,
blásask eitri á ok blôm eldi.
Mikil sókn snáka tveggja gerisk; belti grundar gapa grimmliga. Hœknir gyrðingar hauðrs hǫggvask, blásask eitri ok blôm eldi á.
A great fight commences between the two snakes; the belts of the ground [SNAKES] gape savagely. The vicious girdles of the earth [SNAKES] strike each other, blow venom and blue fire on each other.
notes
[5] hœknir ‘vicious’: A hap. leg., whose meaning and origin are uncertain but whose core sense has been stated as ‘greedy’ (LP: hœkinn; cf. CVC: hækinn). Finnur Jónsson translates with a query as kraftig ‘powerfully’ in Skj B; Merl 2012 has heftig ‘violently’. But if the etymological connection with hákr conjectured in LP is correct, the meaning might rather be ‘vicious, relentless’; cf. the ONP citation (ÍF 12, 303): Var hann því kallaðr Þorkell hákr, at hann eirði hvárki í orðum né verkum, við hvern sem hann átti ‘He was called Þorkell hákr because he never spared anyone in words or deeds with whom he had dealings’. The word hákr is attested only in nicknames; for (inconclusive) conjectures as to its core meaning and etymology see AEW: hákr.
kennings
- Hœknir gyrðingar hauðrs — The vicious girdles of the earth [SNAKES]