Anon Lil 15VII/5 — bruggandi ‘brewing’
Þrútnar, svellr og unir við illa
eingill, bann það er hafði feingið,
fyrða sveitin fædd á jörðu
fái þar vist, er sjálfr hann misti,
og bruggandi dauðans dreggjar,
duldiz hann fyrir augsjón manna;
fjölkunnigr í einum innan
ormi tók hann mál að forma.
Eingill, er hafði feingið það bann, þrútnar, svellr, og unir við illa, sveitin fyrða fædd á jörðu fái vist þar, er hann sjálfr misti, og bruggandi dauðans dreggjar, duldiz hann fyrir augsjón manna; fjölkunnigr, tók hann að forma mál innan í einum ormi.
The angel who had received that ban swells, puffs up, and is displeased that the company of men born on earth should receive a dwelling there where he himself lost one, and, brewing the dregs of death, he concealed himself from the sight of men; knowing magic, he set about forming speech from inside a serpent.
readings
[5] bruggandi: ‘obruggandi’ 720a VIII
notes
[5] og bruggandi dauðans dreggjar ‘and brewing the dregs of death’: The image has many associations. Dregg, a relatively uncommon word in ON, can mean ‘yeast, lees, dregs’ or possibly ‘vinegar’ (see ONP: dregg). Here the pres. part. bruggandi ‘brewing’ makes it clear that the reference is to a drink. The image of the poculum mortis ‘cup of death, deadly cup’ is a commonplace of medieval Germanic (as well as Lat.) literature and occurs in a variety of contexts, pagan as well as Christian (see Hall 1993). A widely-circulated text in which the topos is used in a manner similar to here is the Easter hymn Rex aeterne domine: quem diabolus deceperat, / hostis humani generis, / per pomum ligni vetiti / mortis propinans poculum ‘[Adam,] whom the devil, the enemy of humankind, had deceived, giving him the cup of death to drink by means of the fruit of the forbidden tree’ (DH, 175; cf. AH 51, 6).