Rv Lv 34III/5 — heiðis ‘of the hawk’
Akr verðk opt fyr sjúkri
eyfitja þó sitja
— rjóð es mér in mæra
menbrík — Njǫrun síka
heiðis fylgjask hauðri
(hauk tínik svá) mínu
(setrs leitandi sútar
slœgr á hverju dœgri).
Verðk þó opt sitja akr fyr sjúkri Njǫrun síka eyfitja – in mæra menbrík es mér rjóð – fylgjask mínu hauðri heiðis; tínik svá hauk, slœgr, leitandi setrs sútar á hverju dœgri.
I nonetheless often have to sit in my ploughed field [= (salr ‘hall’)] beside the sick Njǫrun <goddess> of the fishes of the island-meadows [SERPENTS (hringar ‘rings’) > WOMAN] – the excellent neck-ring-table [WOMAN] looks red to me – to be with my land of the hawk [ARM/HAND (mund ‘dowry’)]; I proclaim in this way my hawk [= (harmr ‘sorrow’)], cunning, looking for the seat of grief every day.
readings
[5] heiðis: ‘herder’ 2368ˣ, ‘heder’ 743ˣ
notes
[5] hauðri heiðis ‘land of the hawk [ARM/HAND (mund ‘dowry’)]’: Some form of emendation is clearly required and here Bibire’s (1988) proposed reading heiðis is accepted. The arm/hand-kenning itself is of a well-established type (Meissner 141-2); the question is what it might mean in this context. Here, it is assumed that the underlying word-play is on mund meaning both ‘arm, hand’ and ‘dowry’, as explained in the preceding passage on woman-kennings (LaufE 1979, 293-4): … enn þui er riett ad kienna konu vid hónd … ad þad ä heiti saman og eign konunnar. svo sem hónd heitir mund, og so heimanfilgia hennar ‘… and therefore it is correct to refer to woman in terms of hand … because that (word) shares a synonym with the woman’s property, in that hand is called mund, as is her dowry’ (also SnE 1848-87, II, 632 and LaufE 1979, 377; discussed in Meissner 419). It is further suggested here that this is then used metonymically for ‘woman’, although close parallels are lacking. Alternatively, it could be viewed as a further reduced form of the compressed woman-kennings of the type ‘goddess of the arm’ (Meissner 419-20). Bibire (1988) claims the kenning ‘might be literal’, and translates ‘leaning on my arm’, though this is hard to reconcile with the syntax and the meanings of fylgjask ‘be with, accompany’. He also suggests word-play on armr ‘arm’ and harmr ‘sorrow’, giving ‘to accompany my grief’. Other interpretations offered in Skj B and NN §982 are even less convincing.
kennings
- mínu hauðri heiðis; — my land of the hawk; [ARM/HAND]