Kálf Kátr 12VII/5 — hölda ‘men’
‘Einráðið hefi eg, að orðum þínum
ekki trúi eg nie mínir rekkar’;
þannig mælti hvítra hjalta
hristir reiðr við fljóðið kristið.
Fimm tigu valdi fróðra hölda
fannar lófa spekt að prófa
eigandi við ambátt fræga
eingla dýrðar … þeingils.
‘Eg hefi einráðið, að ekki trúi eg nie mínir rekkar orðum þínum’; þannig mælti reiðr hristir hvítra hjalta við kristið fljóðið. Eigandi fannar lófa valdi fimm tigu fróðra hölda að prófa spekt við fræga ambátt þeingils … dýrðar eingla.
‘I have resolved that neither I nor my men will believe your words’; thus spoke the angry shaker of shining hilts [WARRIOR] to the Christian woman. The owner of the snowdrift of the palm [SILVER > MAN] chose fifty wise men to compete in wisdom with the famous handmaid of the king of the glory of angels [= God (= Christ) > HOLY WOMAN].
readings
[5] fróðra hölda: ‘fr[...]’ 713, ‘Fru [...]lda’ 399a‑bˣ, ‘Fr ... da’ 920ˣ
notes
[5] fróðra hölda (gen. pl.) ‘wise men’: Sperber and Kock (Skald; NN §2960) suggest fróðra hölda; Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) suggests Freyju hölda to create the kenning Freyju fannar lófa ‘Freyja of the snowdrift of the palm [SILVER > WOMAN]’. Here eigandi ‘owner’ (l. 7) is construed with fannar lófa ‘of the snowdrift of the palm [of the hand]’ (l. 6) to give a kenning for a man, ‘the snowdrift of the palm’ being silver. Although eigandi is rare in kennings (Meissner, 337), this interpretation is favoured by the fact that the kenning eigendur jötna róms ‘owners of the speech of giants [GOLD > PEOPLE]’ occurs in st. 50/5-6 and is closely matched by ýtar jötna róms ‘launchers of the speech of giants [GOLD > GENEROUS MEN]’ in 40/5-6.