Sigv Berv 11II/2 — gegnir ‘promoter’
Hverr eggjar þik hǫggva,
hjaldrgegnir, bú þegna?
Ofrausn es þat jǫfri
innanlands at vinna.
Engr hafði svá ungum
áðr bragningi ráðit;
rán hykk rekkum þínum
— reiðrs herr, konungr — leiðask.
Hverr eggjar þik, hjaldrgegnir, hǫggva bú þegna? Es ofrausn jǫfri at vinna þat innanlands. Engr hafði áðr ráðit ungum bragningi svá; hykk rekkum þínum leiðask rán; reiðrs herr, konungr.
Who urges you, battle-promoter [WARRIOR], to slay the livestock of your subjects? It is insolence for a prince to do that in his own land. No one had earlier advised a young ruler in such a way; I think your troops are tired of plunder; people are angry, king.
readings
[2] ‑gegnir: ‑gegn J2ˣ, ‑gegna 325VI, H, Hr, Flat, ‑gegninn 325VII, ‘[…]na’ 325XI 3
notes
[2] hjaldrgegnir ‘battle-promoter [WARRIOR]’: The variant reading hjaldrgegna (m. acc. pl.) ‘battle-able’ (so 325VI, H, Hr, 325XI 3, Flat) could be taken as an adj. qualifying a cpd búþegna (m. acc. pl.) ‘farmers’ (if the phrase is understood as a cpd rather than bú þegna ‘the livestock of your subjects’), as the object of the verb hǫggva ‘slay’ (l. 1). That reading is possible, but it is clearly an attempt at syntactic simplification.
kennings
- hjaldrgegnir, — battle-promoter, [WARRIOR]
grammar
case: nom.