Anon (Ragn) 2VIII (Ragn 32)/4 — hrolla ‘fluttering’
Seg þú frá þegnsköpum þínum!
Þik ráðumz ek spyrja:
hvar sáttu hrafn á hríslu
hrolla dreyrafullan?
Optar þáttu at öðrum
í öndvegi fundinn,
en þú dreyrug hræ drægir
í dal fyrir valfugla.
Seg þú frá þegnsköpum þínum! Ek ráðumz spyrja þik: hvar sáttu dreyrafullan hrafn hrolla á hríslu? Optar þáttu at öðrum, fundinn í öndvegi, en þú drægir dreyrug hræ í dal fyrir valfugla.
Speak of your exploits! I venture to ask you: where did you see a raven, full of blood, fluttering on a branch? You received from others, [and were] found in the high seat, more often than you could have dragged bloody corpses into a valley for carnage-birds [RAVENS/EAGLES].
notes
[4] hrolla ‘fluttering’: Lit. ‘flutter’. Kock (NN §2151) provides examples from Old Norse poetry (Anon Sól 38/5VII, Þjsk Lv 5/1I, Am 97/9) to justify his translation gunga på gren ‘rock (or swing) on a branch’, criticising Finnur Jónsson’s translation skutte sig ‘shake oneself’ (Skj B), and his later remarks in LP: hrolla, apparently on the grounds that Finnur takes the verb to mean ‘shiver’ or ‘hunch oneself up’, as if assailed by the cold. Olsen’s translation (Ragn 1906-8, 216), vakle ‘reeling, staggering’ (as if drunk on blood?) and Eskeland’s (Ragn 1944, 125) ModNorw. raga, meaning much the same, give tolerable sense in the context.