Bjarni Frag 4III/1 — œgir ‘frightener’
Enn lægi mér, œgir,
eirsa*m*r við þik fleira,
mœtihjóls, at mæla,
mergheims, á hraðbergi.
Enn lægi mér á hraðbergi, eirsa*m*r, at mæla fleira við þik, œgir mœtihjóls mergheims.
Still I would be prepared, as a peaceful man, to speak more with you, frightener of the meeting-wheel of the marrow-world [BONE > TORTURE-WHEEL > EXECUTIONER].
notes
[1, 3, 4] œgir mœtihjóls mergheims ‘frightener of the meeting-wheel of the marrow-world [BONE > TORTURE-WHEEL > EXECUTIONER]’: Jón Helgason (1966a, 179) interpreted mœtihjól mergheims ‘the wheel meeting/opposing the bone’ as a kenning for ‘shield’ and the frightener who made use of the shield as ‘man’. This interpretation of the kenning is unconvincing; Meissner 166-76 does not list any examples of shield-kennings with bones or other body parts as determinants. The interpretation of the kenning in the present edn is based on the medieval practice of breaking people on a wheel, where the criminal’s bones were broken by striking a wheel or a hammer against his limbs (see also Anon (FoGT) 17, Note to [All]). Mœtihjól mergheims ‘the meeting-wheel of the marrow-world [BONE]’, then, is an entirely suitable kenning for ‘wheel of torture’, which, combined with the base-word œgir ‘frightener’, forms an equally fitting expression for ‘executioner’. The present interpretation is supported by Frag 5 below, in which a woman releases a tormented man ‘from above’.
kennings
- œgir mœtihjóls mergheims. — frightener of the meeting-wheel of the marrow-world. [EXECUTIONER]
grammar
case: nom.