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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Hfr Hákdr 5III/4 — sik ‘himself’

Sannyrðum spenr sverða
snarr þiggjandi viggjar
barrhaddaða byrjar
biðkvôn und sik Þriðja.

Snarr þiggjandi viggjar byrjar spenr barrhaddaða biðkvôn Þriðja und sik sannyrðum sverða.

The swift receiver of the horse of the breeze [SHIP > SEAFARER] draws under himself the foliage-haired waiting wife of Þriði <= Óðinn> [= Jǫrð (jǫrð ‘earth’)] by means of true words of swords [BATTLE].

notes

[1, 4] spenr … und sik ‘draws under himself’: A conventional phrase for the winning of land, both in verse (Sigv Knútdr 6/2-3I; Egill Lv 45/1V (Eg 129), here með orðum ‘with words’, cf. sannyrðum ‘true words’, l. 1) and prose (Fritzner: spenja). The phrase also works on the metaphorical level of Hákon’s seduction of Jǫrð, as spenja may be applied to a person, with the meaning ‘lure, entice’.

grammar

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