Hfr Hákdr 3III/1 — rotu ‘downpour’
Ok geirrotu gǫtvar
gagls við strengjar hagli
hungreyðǫndum Hanga
hléðut járni séðar.
Ok gǫtvar geirrotu, séðar járni, hléðut hungreyðǫndum gagls Hanga við hagli strengjar.
And garments of spear-downpour [BATTLE > MAIL-SHIRTS], seamed with iron, did not protect hunger-assuagers of the gosling of Hangi <= Óðinn> [RAVEN > WARRIORS] from the hailstone of the bowstring [ARROW].
readings
[1] geirrotu: ‘geir ǫtv’ W, ‘gæira tó’ corrected from ‘gæiro tó’ in scribal hand A
notes
[1] gǫtvar geirrotu ‘garments of spear-downpour [BATTLE > MAIL-SHIRTS]’: The same kenning occurs in Egill Lv 17/5V (Eg 24). The second element of the cpd could alternatively be Róta (or Rota), a valkyrie-name, so ‘spear-Róta’ (cf. geir-Skǫgul; LP: geir-Róta); ‘garments of Róta’ is then an armour-kenning. The valkyrie-name is only attested once outside kennings, in a context where Rota/Róta is portrayed acting together with the valkyrie Guðr/Gunnr, whose name means ‘battle’, in Gylf (SnE 2005, 30), while rota f. ‘rainshower’ is better attested, appearing e.g. in a list of missile-heiti in Skm’s prose (SnE 1998, I, 67). The common noun -rotu ‘of downpour’ is more in keeping with the extended ‘weather’ metaphor; most previous eds, however, print -Rótu. The length of the root vowel, [o] or [o:], cannot be determined, and both forms are possible metrically.
kennings
- geirrotu, — of spear-downpour, [BATTLE]
- gǫtvar geirrotu, — garments of spear-downpour, [MAIL-SHIRTS]
grammar
case: gen.