Hvat er þat undra, er ek úti sá
fyrir Dellings durum?
Ókyrrir tveir andalausir
sára lauk suðu.
Heiðrekr konungr, hyggðu at gátu.
Hvat undra er þat, er ek sá úti fyrir durum Dellings? Ókyrrir tveir andalausir suðu lauk sára. Heiðrekr konungr, hyggðu at gátu.
What is the wonder that I saw outside before Dellingr’s doors? Two unquiet things, without breath, cooked a leek of wounds [SWORD]. Kings Heiðrekr, think about the riddle.
[6] suðu lauk sára ‘cooked a leek of wounds [SWORD]’: I.e. forged a sword. The verb sjóða means both ‘cook, boil’ and ‘forge [weapons]’ (Fritzner, CVC, LP: sjóða), presumably because steel is plunged into water during the tempering process (on this see Davidson 1962, 18-19). In the present contexts there is nice word-play with the idea of cooking juxtaposed with the kenning base-word laukr ‘leek’. The same sword-kenning appears elsewhere, e.g. Anon Liðs 9/6I, and as a cpd (sárlaukr) in Skúli Svǫlðr 2/8III. See also Meissner 152.
case: acc.