Eyv Lv 5I/2 — byggving ‘inhabiter’
Veitk, at beit inn bitri
byggving meðaldyggvan
bulka skíðs ór bôðum
benvǫndr konungs hǫndum.
Ófælinn klauf Ála
éldraugr skarar hauga
gollhjǫltuðum galtar
grandaðr Dana brandi.
Veitk, at inn bitri benvǫndr beit meðaldyggvan byggving skíðs bulka ór bôðum hǫndum konungs. Ála galtar éldraugr, grandaðr Dana, klauf ófælinn hauga skarar gollhjǫltuðum brandi.
I know that the biting wound-wand [SWORD] bit the middling-valiant inhabiter of the ski of cargo [SHIP > SEAFARER] from both the king’s hands. The log of the storm of the boar of Áli <legendary king> [(lit. ‘storm-log of the boar of Áli’) HELMET > BATTLE > WARRIOR = Hákon], injurer of the Danes [= Hákon], cleft, unflinching, the burial-mounds of hair [HEADS] with his gold-hilted sword.
readings
[2] byggving: ‘hyggiung’ FskBˣ
notes
[2, 3] byggving skíðs bulka ‘inhabiter of the ski of cargo [SHIP > SEAFARER]’: This, the warrior killed by the king, is identified as Eyvindr skreyja in Fsk and Hkr (see Context; followed in ÍF 26; ÍF 29; Hkr 1991). To judge from the stanza itself, however, the reference could be to Álfr (see Note to Lv 3/4) through his nickname askmaðr ‘Shipman, viking’ (so Hkr 1893-1901, IV; Skj B; see also Finnur Jónsson 1907, 284 and Lind 1920-1, 6 on the nickname, and Jesch 2001a, 135 on askr ‘ship’). There may have been competing accounts of the deaths of Eyvindr and Álfr, and in crediting the killing of Álfr to Þórálfr Skólmsson (an Icelander in whose honour ÞSjár Þórdr was composed), the prose sources may include some elements of early tradition.
kennings
- meðaldyggvan byggving skíðs bulka — the middling-valiant inhabiter of the ski of cargo [SEAFARER]
grammar
case: acc.