Darn it LN - there is a streak of Skald and Artist in you we wiste not of 
This is really beginning to help the solution of the translations
Thanks very much
Kveðja
Patricia
 
-------Original Message-------
 
From: llama_nom
Date: 11/05/2008 09:46:23
Subject: [norse_course] Steinunn Refsdóttir: Lausavísur
 
At the risk of more Yahoo weirdness, I'm going to try two more colour-coded stanzas.  The kviðlingr of Hjalti Skeggjason is relatively straightforward, so I'll skip to Steinunn's verses at the end of the chapter. Slightly different colour-coding scheme this time; I don't know if that's clearer.

NOTE: Þvinnill, Atall and Gylfi are sækonungar "sea-kings", pirate rulers who had armies but no land (see Ynglinga saga, ch. 50).  Skáldskaparmál explains kennings for the sea in Chapters 25 and 51.

Braut fyr bjöllu gæti
(bönd ráku val strandar),
mög-fellandi mellu
mó-stalls vísund allan.

The slayer of ogress's sons (Thor) broke the bison of the gull-perch (=bison of the sea = ship) all up for the guardian of the bell (=priest = Thangbrand)The gods drove the steed of the strand (=ship) [to its destruction].

mög-fellandi mellu
- lit. "son-slayer of ogress".
bönd - lit. "bonds", a poetic word for the gods.
fyr = fyrir.

Hlífðit Kristr, þás kneyfði
knörr
, málm-feta varrar;
lítt hykk, at goð gætti
Gylfa hreins at einu.

Christ did not shield the iron-foot of the pull-of-the-oar (=horse of the sea = ship) when he crushed the cargo vessel.  I do not think that God guarded Gylfi's reindeer (=that ship) at all.

hlífði is combined with the negative suffix -(a)t.
þás = þá er "when".
hykk = hygg ek.
lítt literally "little", but that's an understatement; it really just negates hygg.
at einu "at all".
vörr "pull of the oar".
goð = guð.

Þórr brá Þvinnils dýri
Þangbrands ór stað löngu,
hristi búss ok beysti
barðs ok laust við jörðu.

Thor drove Thangbrand's long beast of Thvinnil (=ship) off course, shook and bashed the box tree of the prow (=ship) freely against the land.

beysta "to strike, smash".

Muna skíð of sæ síðan
sundfoert Atals grundar,
hregg, þvít hart tók leggja,
hánum kennt, í spánu.

I doubt the ski of Atal's field (=ski of the sea = ship) will be fit to float on the sea after that storm, blamed on him, because it smashed it to splinters.

muna = mun "will" (auxiliary verb expressing futurity and/or probability) + the negative suffix -a.
of sæ "on the sea".
hánum = honum (archaic form).
þvít = því at "because".