Marm Lv 3VIII (Hálf 8)/6 — Svarðar ‘Svǫrðr’s’
Sögu kann ek segja sonum Háleygja
vilgi góða, ef þér vilið heyra.
Hér ferr sunnan Svarðar dóttir,
um drifin dreyra, frá Danmörku.
Ek kann segja sonum Háleygja vilgi góða sögu, ef þér vilið heyra. Hér ferr dóttir Svarðar, um drifin dreyra, sunnan frá Danmörku.
I can tell the sons of the Háleygir a story [which is] by no means good, if you want to hear it. Here Svǫrðr’s daughter, drenched with blood, moves from the south from Denmark.
notes
[6] dóttir Svarðar ‘Svǫrðr’s daughter’: The pers. n. Svǫrðr is otherwise unknown, but is likely to be the determinant of a kenning for a valkyrie or other female figure of war. Skj B substitutes Hǫgna ‘of Hǫgni’, thus producing a kenning for the valkyrie Hildr, whose name as a common noun also means ‘battle’. This emendation, though unjustified by the ms. and non-alliterating, fits with the merman’s apparent personification of Danish aggression moving from the south in the form of a warlike valkyrie or shield-maiden in Hálf 9/1-4 and again in Hálf 10/1-4. Andrews (Hálf 1909, 15-6, 84) attempts to show that an otherwise unknown pers. n. Svǫrðr might be a shortened, syncopated form of Sigvarðr/Sigurðr.