Arn Frag 2III/4 — grandauknum ‘a wound-swollen’
Svalg áttbogi ylgjar
ógóðr, en varð blóði
grœðir grœnn at rauðum,
grandauknum ná, blandinn.
Ógóðr áttbogi ylgjar svalg grandauknum ná, en grœnn grœðir, blandinn blóði, varð at rauðum.
The evil offspring of the she-wolf [WOLF] swallowed a wound-swollen corpse, and the green surge, mingled with blood, turned to red.
readings
[4] grandauknum: ‘brandvoxnvm’ U, granauknum C
notes
[4] grandauknum ‘wound-swollen’: The cpd (nom. sg.) grandaukinn, which qualifies nár ‘corpse’, is unique, and its meaning uncertain. (a) Grand normally has the sense ‘harm, injury’ (emotional, spiritual or physical). Compounded with aukinn, it could mean ‘swollen with wounds’ (cf. Bjbp Jóms 31/2I bólginn ná ‘swollen corpse’) or conceivably ‘increased (in number) by injury/disaster’. (b) Kock (NN §2522) suggested that grand could mean ‘sand’, cf. ON grand ‘grain’ as in ekki grand ‘not a grain, not a morsel’, grandi n. ‘strip of beach’ and New Norw. grande ‘sand-bank, sand-bar’. Grandaukinn ‘increased, swollen with grand’ could then imply that the dead men had taken in sand and become bloated by it. Bodies are described as lying on sand in ÞjóðA Magn 2/5-6, 8II and Bǫlv Hardr 4/5-8II; ÞSjár Þórdr 3/5-8I says that slain warriors lying in the shallows had sand in their mouths, and Arnórr himself pictures ‘sandy corpses’ being driven ashore in Arn Magndr 15/1-2II. However, in the absence of stronger evidence for grand in the sense ‘sand’, (a) seems the safer solution.