Heill Haukur!

I hope I have hereby contributed, if only
ever so little, to applaude your wise choice
of Krákumál, as a poem that deserves to be
quoted and read.

Since Finnur Jonsson has already translated
most of the scaldic poems to Danish, I thought
it would be appropriate to attach his Danish
rendering.

As you will no doubt have seen, I thereafter
attempted to make a translation to German,
for the benefit of those of our German readers,
who are not used to reading Danish texts (yet);
for I feel certain that their grasp of even
Danish will become much improved as they increase
their knowledge of Old Norse.

A more exact - or literal - English translation I
will however leave to you, since you will be able
to work directly in terms of the Old Norse text,
whereas I glanced at the Danish text in order to
save time.

Then I will ask the German readers who think it
worth while, to assist me in getting rid of
errors I have made with the German, and also to
suggest ways that might improve the sound (Klang),
as well as rhythm and all the other parapharnelia
that make a poem pleasant to read.

With regards,
Keth

> For those not initiated into the
> inner mysteries of Danish, Keth
> was quoting Finnur Jónsson's normalised
> version of Krákumál's first stanza followed
> by a Danish translation - also by FJ.
>
> Regards,
> Haukur
>
>
> > Hjoggum vér með hjo,rvi.
> > Hitt vas æ fyr lo,ngu
> > es á Gautlandi gingum
> > at grafvitnis morði;
> > þá fingum vér Þóru,
> > þaðan hétu mik fyrðar,
> > es lyngo,lun lagðak,
> > Loðbrók at þvi vigi;
> > stakk á storðar lykkju
> > stáli bjartra mála.