I received an answer from someone in Iceland (below) with some good information that I want to share with you on the list.
With regards,
Birgit
A common source of misunderstandings of Old Icelandic
poetry, and some bad translations, is the general inability
of many translators and interpreters to understand the
basic, simple mechanics of the kenning system of the poets.
This is a good example. "Skreytir" actually does not mean
"adornment". "Skreytir" is a 'nomen agentis', i.e. an agent-noun.
Such a noun is generally formed from a verb, and indicates a
person who performs the action inherent in the verb. The verb,
in this particular case, is "skreyta" = "adorn". A "skreytir"
is not an "adornment", but an "adorner", "one who adorns". (If
you are interested, "adornment" would be "skraut".)
The kenning "skreytir skipa" means literally "adorner of ships",
and is a slightly more poetic way of saying "equipper of ships",
i.e. "seafarer". It is but one example of a large class of similar
kennings, which ultimately mean simply "man". The poets had three
different types of kennings for men, i.e. kennings meaning 'warrior',
kennings meaning 'seafarer', and kennings meaning 'generous man'.
A man was a mover of swords, ships, or gold-rings. These three
classes cover 99% of all man-kennings in the old poetry. "Skreytir
skipa" is a perfectly ordinary example of one of these classes.
Here are a few similar ones, using the "skreytir"-stem:
skreytir skauthreina = adorner of sail-reindeers
skreytir blakks skorðu = adorner of steed of ship-props
skreytir skíðs láðs vögnu = adorner of ski of land of dolphin
láðskreytir barðjós = land-adorner of prow-horse
vagnskreytir víka = wagon-adorner of bays
I think you can easily decipher them - they are all exact equivalents
of "skreytir skipa". "Láðskreytir barðjós" is more twisted than the
rest, because it is of the 'inverted' type. What it really means is
"jóskreytir barðláðs" = "skreytir jós láðs barðs" = adorner of horse
of land of prow. The land of prow is the ocean, the horse of ocean
is the ship, and the ship's adorner is a man, who adorns it with the
various things he makes and places on it, sails, shields, etc.
Since you've mentioned the Old Icelandic Rune Poem, I have actually
just been looking at a so-called "translation" of this on an Internet
website, which publishes such amateur translations. I was shocked to
see how bad it was, and not really surprised to see all the kennings
mangled particularly badly.
For example, both the kennings given under the first rune, FÉ,
are very simple gold-kennings, totally transparent to anyone
with a minimum knowledge of the system:
The translator obviously had no idea what to make of these
simplest of kennings, for he translated them as "flood-tide's
sign" and "grave-sorcery's way"! How these "interpretations"
are supposed to fit the theme of FÉ, I have no idea.