Mark Eirdr 8II/4 — Fenneyjar ‘of Venice’
Lýst skal hitt, es lofðungr fýstisk
langan veg til Róms at ganga
— fylkir sá þar friðland balkat
Fenneyjar hlið — dýrð at nenna.
Hitt skal lýst, es lofðungr fýstisk at ganga langan veg til Róms at nenna dýrð; fylkir sá þar balkat friðland, hlið Fenneyjar.
It shall be brought to light, that the leader desired to walk the long way to Rome to engage in glory; the ruler saw there the protected secured land, the gates of Venice.
notes
[4] Fenneyjar ‘of Venice’: The ON version of this p. n. is given as Feneðí or Feney. The latter appears to be a folk-etymological formation based on the Lat. name and the topography of the city: fen is ‘marsh, bog, dike, dam’ and ey is ‘island’ (see LP: Feney). In the present st., the metre requires a long syllable in position 1. Skj B and Skald supply Fenneyjar and ÍF 35 gives Feneyjar (which is unmetrical). In Hb (Hb 1892-6, 176), the p. n. is spelled with a geminate. Alternatively, we could assume that the earlier form of the word was Fenjey (fen is a n. ja-stem; for similar compounds, see Kuhn 1983, 48), which would also fulfil the metrical requirements.