Sigv Lv 18I/6 — brum ‘period’
Stóðk á Mont, ok minntumk,
mǫrg hvar sundr fló targa
breið ok brynjur síðar
borgum nær, of morgin.
Munða ek, þanns unnði
(ǫndverðan brum) lǫndum,
(faðir minn vas þar þenna
Þórrøðr) konung, forðum.
Stóðk of morgin á Mont, ok minntumk, hvar mǫrg breið targa ok síðar brynjur fló sundr nær borgum. Munða ek konung, þanns forðum unnði lǫndum; Þórrøðr faðir minn vas þar þenna ǫndverðan brum.
I stood one morning in the Alps, and I remembered where many a broad shield, and long mail-shirts, flew asunder near towns. I recalled the king who once enjoyed his lands; Þórðr my father was there early in that period.
readings
notes
[6, 7] þenna ǫndverðan brum ‘in that early period’: An adverbial acc. sg.; brum ‘bud, point of time’ is usually n., but a m. equivalent has been assumed (e.g. LP: brumr; ÍF 28). The phrase is taken here, as in Skj B, to qualify the vas-clause referring to Sigvatr’s father Þórðr. ÍF 28 and Hkr 1991 on the other hand take ǫndverðan brum with the un(n)ði-clause about Óláfr’s lordship (also qualified by forðum ‘formerly’), and they take þenna with the clause about Þórðr, where it stands for þenna brum ‘during that period’ or þenna dag ‘that day’. The exact reference of ǫndverðan brum is difficult to determine, but ‘early in Óláfr’s career’ fits the presumed facts, since Snorri tells us (ÓH 1941, I, 81, ÍF 27, 54) that Þórðr met and became the retainer of Óláfr while the young king was on his viking expedition in the west. For this reason, Olsen (1954, 192-3) takes the description of a battle in the first helmingr to be a report of what Sigvatr had heard from his father about this expedition.