Hjþ Lv 6VIII (HjǪ 13)/8 — aumasta ‘most wretched’
Mun þik snerta Snarvendill fyrr,
en þú á seyði setir konungs arfa.
Handar muntu missa ok hátt æpa;
svá munum skilja, skauð in aumasta.
Snarvendill mun snerta þik fyrr, en þú setir arfa konungs á seyði. Muntu missa handar ok æpa hátt; svá munum skilja, in aumasta skauð.
Snarvendill will touch you before you put the heir of the king [RULER = me, Hjálmþér] on the fire. You will lose your hand and shriek loudly; thus we will part, most wretched cunt.
notes
[8] in aumasta skauð ‘most wretched cunt’: A gross insult, because the word skauð often refers to the female genitalia, specifically the vagina (cf. Fritzner: skauð 1 and citations there as well as Note to Ǫrv 46/10), just as words for ‘sword’ and ‘knife’ can refer to the penis, and the mention of Snarvendill touching Ýma here is likely to carry sexual symbolism as well as being the instrument whereby Hjálmþér threatens to cut off her hand. The saga’s prose text following this stanza makes it perfectly clear that Ýma understands Hjálmþér’s idiom of sexualised aggression, because she responds by inviting him to have intercourse with her.