Hnøtr sendi mér handan
hrǫnduðr alinbranda
— ár vas, þats mank meiri
mín þing — konungr hingat.
Mær es markar stjóri;
meir sék þar til fleira;
niðrat oss í ǫðru,
íslands mikils vísi.
Konungr, hrǫnduðr alinbranda, sendi mér handan hnøtr hingat; ár vas, þats mank þing mín meiri. Stjóri markar es mær; meir sék þar til fleira; niðrat oss í ǫðru, vísi mikils íslands.
The king, the distributor of arm-flames [GOLD > GENEROUS MAN = Óláfr], sent some nuts across to me here; it was long ago, when I remember my position [to have been] greater. The ruler of the forest [TREE] is slender; later I will look for more there; do not humiliate us again, sovereign of the great ice-land [SEA > RULER].
[8] íslands ‘of the ice-land [SEA]’: The kenning is paralleled by ísheimr ‘ice-world [SEA]’ in Gamlkan Has 32/2VII, but there may also be word-play here on Ísland ‘Iceland’. Vísi íslands in the sense ‘ruler of the sea’ assumed here would be an unusual ruler-kenning, but one which can accommodate the qualifying adj. mikils. Vísi Íslands would be a more familiar type of ruler-kenning (cf. Meissner 353), but the grounds on which Óláfr might claim to be ruler of Iceland are unclear (see EValg Lv and Eþver Lv 1 for his territorial ambitions in that direction). Conceivably, Íslands could qualify oss ‘us’ (i.e. Óttarr and Sigvatr), giving the sense ‘sovereign, do not humiliate those of us from mighty Iceland’.