Anon Óldr 14I/4 — hjalm ‘of helmet’
Eigum (langa lœgis)
liðrœkjanda frœknum
(hyrstríðir braut heiðni)
hjalmraunar þat launa.
Hrings hefr þarfastr þengill
þrymdraugum sá bauga
— herr nýtr hodda þverris —
hingat norðr of orðit.
Lœgis hyrstríðir braut langa heiðni; eigum launa frœknum hjalmraunar liðrœkjanda þat. Sá hefr of orðit þarfastr þengill bauga hrings þrymdraugum hingat norðr; herr nýtr þverris hodda.
The opponent of the fire of the sea [(lit. ‘fire-opponent of the sea’) GOLD > GENEROUS MAN] destroyed longstanding heathendom; we have to repay the valiant carer of the snake of helmet-trial [(lit. ‘snake-carer of helmet-trial’) BATTLE > SWORD > WARRIOR] for that. He has become the most useful lord for logs of the din of the disk of shield-rings [(lit. ‘din-logs of the disk of shield-rings’) SHIELD > BATTLE > WARRIORS] up here in the north; the people benefit from the diminisher of hoards [GENEROUS MAN].
notes
[2, 4] liðrœkjanda hjalmraunar ‘carer of the snake of helmet-trial [(lit. ‘snake-carer of helmet-trial’) BATTLE > SWORD > WARRIOR]’: Ms. ‘lid’ is taken here as the variant form of linnr m. ‘snake’ (see LP: 2. liðr m.). This is very common as the base-word to sword-kennings (Meissner 154). Other possibilities include líð n. ‘ale’ as in (b) below and lið n. ‘support’ or ‘troop’ as in (c) below. The interpretation of hjalmraunar is also problematic. (a) The parallels for hjalmraun ‘helmet-trial, ‑test’ as a battle-kenning are few and weak (Meissner 200), but the parallelism of structure and placement of the stanza’s three main kenningar (each an inverted kenning, a component of each of them forming the first elements of ll. 2, 3 and 6) seems deliberate, and favours the interpretation here. (b) Hjalmraun is more plausible as a sword-kenning, giving hjalmraunar líðrœkjandi ‘carer of the ale of helmet-trial [SWORD > BLOOD > WARRIOR]’, but warrior-kennings with ‘blood’ as determinant are extremely rare (Meissner 278). (c) The other solution is to emend hjalm to gen. sg. hjalms, yielding liðrœkjanda hjalms ‘user/carer of the support of the helmet [WARRIOR]’ (so LP: liðrœkjandi) and the adv. raunar ‘really’ attached to the second clause, but the construals along these lines in Skj B and NN §2453 are not persuasive.
kennings
- hjalmraunar — of helmet-trial [BATTLE]
- hjalmraunar lið — of the snake of helmet-trial [SWORD]
- frœknum hjalmraunar liðrœkjanda — the valiant carer of the snake of helmet-trial [WARRIOR]