Bjǫrn Lv 1VIII (Frið 9)/3 — vara ‘bearer’
Erat sem ekkja
á þik vili drekka,
björt baugvara
biði nær fara.
Sölt eru augu,
sitkak í laugu;
bálskorð arma,
bítr mér í hvarma.
Erat sem ekkja vili drekka á þik, björt baugvara biði fara nær. Augu eru sölt, sitkak í laugu; arma bálskorð, bítr mér í hvarma.
It it not as if a woman would want to drink to you, [or that] a bright ring-bearer [WOMAN] would ask [you] to come close. [My] eyes are salty, I am not sitting in a bath; prop of the fire of arms [(lit. ‘fire-prop of arms’) GOLD > WOMAN], my eye-lids are stinging.
readings
[3] baugvara: ‘baugvarit’ 568ˣ, 27ˣ
notes
[3] baugvara ‘a ring-bearer [WOMAN]’: Or possibly ‘a ring-adorner’. This hap. leg. cpd is treated as a woman-kenning, but the meaning of the second element is uncertain. Mss 568ˣ and 27ˣ have the p. p. -varið which would make better sense, if the second element derives from verja ‘wrap, dress, adorn’ (cf. HHund II 35/7, NK 158, brúðr baugvarið ‘woman adorned with rings’), and this reading is adopted in Skj B and Skald, though the end-rhyme with fara (l. 4) is then lost. The cpd in -vara may be a secondary formation derived from -varið.
kennings
- björt baugvara — a bright ring-bearer [WOMAN]
grammar
case: nom.