Skúli Svǫlðr 4III/4 — baugum ‘with rings’
Þás ræfrvita Reifnis
rauðk fyr Svǫlð til auðar;
herfylgins bark Hǫlga
haugþak saman baugum.
Þás rauðk Reifnis ræfrvita fyr Svǫlð til auðar; bark saman haugþak herfylgins Hǫlga baugum.
When I reddened the beacon of the roof of Reifnir <sea-king> [(lit. ‘roof-beacon of Reifnir’) SHIELD > SWORD] off Svolder for riches; I gathered together barrow-thatch of host-accompanying Hǫlgi <legendary king> [GOLD] with rings.
readings
notes
[4] baugum ‘with rings’: Dat. is taken here as indicating ‘accompanying circumstances’ (cf. Heusler 1967, 116), but the usage is unusual. An alternative would be to read sama ‘befit, suit’ (R, Tˣ, W) for saman in l. 4 and construe bark haugþak herfylgins Hǫlga sama baugum ‘I carried the barrow-thatch of host-accompanying Hǫlgi <legendary king> [GOLD] to befit rings’, but it is difficult to find parallels for either the combination bera + inf. or sama with dat. rei; nor is it entirely clear what the phrase would mean. Other solutions proposed by previous eds are taking C’s bauga (gen. pl.) as part of the shield-kenning (Wood 1964, 183), giving the pleonastic Reifnis bauga ræfrviti ‘beacon of Reifnir’s rings’ roof’ [SHIELD > SWORD]; or taking baugum as ‘with shields’, i.e. ‘by means of fighting’ (NN §2264), although baugr is not used as a shield-heiti elsewhere in early poetry (LP: baugr 4).