Gísl Magnkv 16II/8 — val ‘The corpse-’
Blár ægir skaut búnum svíra;
gjalfr hljóp í gin gollnu hǫfði.
Skein af hausum sem himins eisa
dǫglings dreka djúps valfasti.
Blár ægir skaut búnum svíra; gjalfr hljóp í gin gollnu hǫfði. Valfasti djúps skein sem eisa himins af hausum dreka dǫglings.
The dark ocean struck against the adorned neck; the surge leaped into the jaws of the golden head. The corpse-flame [SWORD (brandr ‘fire’)] of the deep [GOLD] shone like the cinder of heaven [SUN] from the skulls of the ruler’s dragon.
readings
[8] djúps val‑: djúpr sal‑ F
notes
[8] valfasti ‘the corpse-flame [SWORD (brandr ‘fire’)]’: A kenning for ‘sword’. It seems that we are dealing with an ofljóst (‘too transparent’) construction, i.e. a play on the word brandr, which can mean both ‘sword’ (valfasti) and ‘fire’. Another alternative would be to adopt the F variant salfasti ‘hall-fire’ and read salfasti djúps ‘the hall-fire of the deep’, i.e. ‘the hall-fire of the sea’. The god Ægir was the personification of the sea (see Note to st. 15/8), and, according to the prose introduction to Lok (see NK 96), his hall was lit by white gold (lýsigull) (see also NN §2534 and the detailed discussion in Clunies Ross 1987, 138-50). Kock (NN §2534) emends to djúps svalfasti ‘the cool fire of the deep’ i.e. ‘gold’ while Finnur Jónsson (LP: valfasti 2) merely notes that the cpd in this particular instance means ‘fire’.
kennings
- Valfasti — The corpse-flame [SWORD]
- Valfasti djúps — The corpse-flame of the deep [GOLD]