EBrún Lv 1III/3 — ilja ‘of footsoles’
Kaupir árr — né eyri
allrífum skal hlífa —
orðrakkr ilja snekkjur
austrœnar sér flausta.
Orðrakkr árr flausta kaupir sér austrœnar snekkjur ilja; né skal hlífa allrífum eyri.
The word-bold messenger of ships [SEAFARER] buys himself eastern warships of footsoles [SHOES]; one must not spare abundant money.
notes
[3-4] austrœnar snekkjur ilja ‘eastern warships of footsoles [SHOES]’: The adj. austrœnar (f. acc. pl.) can only qualify snekkjur (f. acc. pl.) ‘warships’ (l. 3). and is often used to refer to goods from Norway, seen from an Icelandic point of view (ONP: austrǿnn). Austrœnar snekkjur ilja ‘eastern warships of footsoles [SHOES]’ most likely means here that these are shoes from Norway. Kennings denoting ‘foot’ or ‘shoe(s)’ are attested elsewhere in poetry (Meissner 434), and the noun il f. ‘footsole’ is used as a determinant in several of these (see ÞjóðA Lv 6/6II, ÞjóðA Lv 8/2II, Eil Þdr 3/7). A ship-term as the base-word of such a kenning also appears in ÞjóðA Sex 20/7II hleypikjólar hæls ‘the speeding ships of the heel [SHOES]’. In Skj A, Finnur Jónsson used only ms. 743ˣ, and he emended the reading ‘austrer aser’ to austrœnna (gen. pl.) sér to construe Orðrakkr rr austrœnna flausta ‘The word-bold captain of a Norwegian ship [a Norwegian merchant]’ (Skj B). Finnur’s emendation was adopted by Kock (Skald).
kennings
- austrœnar snekkjur ilja; — eastern warships of footsoles; [SHOES]