Anon (Ragn) 5VIII (Ragn 35)/3 — Heila ‘Heila’
Anon (Ragn) 5VIII (Ragn 35)Alls engi sá ek yðvarn,
þar er upp lokinn fundum
Heilavá*g fyrir hvítum
hesti máva rastar.
Ok við lási lúðra
fyrir landi vér undum
hallar ríkri möllu
hrafns fyrir rauðum stafni.
Ek sá alls engi yðvarn, þar er fundum Heilavá*g upp lokinn fyrir hvítum hesti rastar máva. Ok við lási lúðra undum vér fyrir landi ríkri möllu hallar hrafns fyrir rauðum stafni.
I saw none of you at all where we found Heilavágr opened up before the white horse of the path of seagulls [SEA > SHIP]. And with our ships at anchor we took pleasure, offshore, in the mighty enclosure of the hall of the raven [CRAG > SEA] before the red prow.
notes
[3] Heilavá*g ‘Heilavágr’: An unlocated and possibly legendary p. n. (a) The ms. reading ‘vangh’ is retained by Örnólfur Thorsson (Ragn 1985) alone, without explanation. It is true that vangr m. ‘(green) field, stretch of grass’ occurs frequently as a final element in place names (CVC: vangr II; Rygh 1898, 84), but it is difficult to see how this fits with the first element, Heila-, which is almost certainly the gen. sg. of heili m. ‘brain’, unless ‘field of the brain’ referred, in the manner of a kenning, to the head as part of the body and hence conceivably to a head-shaped promontory. (b) The phrase upp lokinn ‘opened up’ in l. 2 seems more appropriate to a partly enclosed space, such as is formed by a bay or a fjord (see Fritzner: lúka upp 1). Emendation to Heilavág, acc. sg. of Heilavágr ‘Bay of the brain’ (?) is accordingly adopted here (as by Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) and Kock (Skald)), even though this leaves the first element in the word unexplained. Heilivágr occurs in Sturl Hákkv 28/7II heilivágr allra sorga ‘soothing balm (lit. bay) of all torments [WINE/ALE]’, but it is unclear whether it has any connection with the present p. n. (c) Bugge (1878, 53-4) and others emend to vang Heita ‘field of Heiti <sea-king> [SEA]’ (for Heiti, as a sea-king name, see Þul Sækonunga 3/4III). (d) CPB and Rafn (FSN) emend to the meaningless varg heila ‘wolf of the brain’ (?).