Heill Haukr!
Cleaning up my "Attachments" folder, I found the following file:
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Hjuggum vér með hjörvi,
hitt var æ fyr löngu
er á Gautlandi gengum
at grafvitnis morð;
þá fengum vér Þóru
þaðan hétu mik fyrðar
er lyngölun lagðak
Loðbrók at því vígi.
Stakk í storðar lykkju,
stáli bjartra mála.
Word POS Form Dict. form Meaning
English cognate
hjuggum verb pret. 1p. pl. höggva hewed hew
vér pron. nom. pl. vér we we
með prep. - með with -
hjörvi noun dat. sg. masc. hjörr sword -
hitt pron. nom. sg. neut. hinn that (it)
var verb pret. 3p. sg. vera was was
æ adv. - æ * -
fyr prep. - fyr(ir) * for
löngu adj. dat. sg. neut. langr * long
er conj. - er when -
á prep. - á in on
Gautlandi noun dat. sg. neut. Gautland - -
gengum verb pret. 1p. pl. ganga (we) walked
gang (Scots)
at prep. - at to at
graf-vitnis noun. gen. sg. neut. graf-vitnir worm's ** -
morði noun. dat. sg. neut. morð murder murder
þá prep. - þá then then
fengum verb pret. 1p. pl. fá (we) got -
Þóru noun acc. sg. fem. Þóra - -
þaðan adv. - þaðan thence (thence)
hétu verb pret. 3p. pl. heita called
hight (archaic)
mik pron. acc. sg. ek me (me)
fyrðar noun nom. pl. masc. fyrðar people -
lyng-ölun noun acc. sg. masc. lyng-ölunn ** -
lagða-k verb pret. 1p. sg. leggja + ek killed laid
Loð-brók noun acc. sg. fem. Loðbrók furry-pants -
at prep. - at at at
því pron. dat. sg. neut. þat that that
vígi noun dat. sg. neut. víg killing -
stakk verb pret. 1p. sg. stinga stabbed stung
í prep - í into in(to)
storðar noun gen. sg. fem. storð earth's -
lykkju noun acc. sg. fem. lykkja loop ** -
stáli noun dat. sg. neut. stál steel steel
bjartra adj. gen. pl. neut. bjartr bright (bright)
mála noun. gen. pl. neut. mál unknown *** -
* The phrase "æ fyr löngu" means something like "ever so long ago".
** Kennings for serpent. Literally "dig-wolf", "berry-brush-fish" and
"earth's loop".
*** Possibly "decorations". In any case "steel of bright mál" means "spear".
(anal retentively) Literal translation:
"We swung our sword; that was ever so long ago when we walked in Gautland
to the murder of the dig-wulf. Then we received Þóra; since then (at that battle
when I killed the berry-brushes-fish) people called me Furry-pants. I stabbed
the spear into the loop of the earth."
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I now (of course) recognize it as something you wrote! But I was not aware
of having received it until this minute. A word of explanation: I use an
old version of Eudora as emailer (has the advantage of being without
all the advertisements that they put onto the new version).
But then the email attachments arrive quite independent of the emails,
and are stored in a separate folder called "attachments". Today I saw
that it contained thousands of "vcards", "jpg"s, "GIF"s, Word files
(that I can't read, because I never bought the latest version of Word)
etc.. Since I have an old computer (10 years), it is too cumbersome to
look at it.
I therefore am very sorry that I missed your excellent post, Haukur!
I wasn't aware that you had already translated Verse 1 of Krákumál to English.
Personally, I prefer it (if possible) that text files are sent as part of
the email, and not as attachment, for the said reason. I don't think there
is any technical reason whu attachment would work better. After all, it
is just binary packets that are being transmittet in both cases.
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Here I'd like to compare the ON version that you sent us with
Finnur Jónsson's normalized version of verse 1, that I also
posted last tyuesday (I think it was):
Haukur's version:
Hjuggum vér með hjörvi,
hitt var æ fyr löngu
er á Gautlandi gengum
at grafvitnis morð;
þá fengum vér Þóru
þaðan hétu mik fyrðar
er lyngölun lagðak
Loðbrók at því vígi.
Stakk í storðar lykkju,
stáli bjartra mála.
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Finnur Jónsson's version:
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.
Vi huggede med sværd.
Det skete for længe siden,
at jeg gikk i Götland
for at dræbe ormen;
derpå ægtede jeg Tora;
deraf kaldte man mig Lodbrok
efter den kamp,
da jeg stakk ormen ihjæl.
Jeg jog stålet
med de skinnende runer i ormen.
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For completeness, I also add Haukur's version of verse 2:
Hjuggum vér með hjörvi.
Heldr var ek ungr, er skýfðum
austr í Eyrasundi
undarn frekum vargi,
ok fótgulum fogli
fengum vér, þar er sungu
við háseymda hjálma
hörð járn mikils verðar;
allr varð ægir sollinn,
óð hrafn í valblóði.
Thus far that is all I have received (verse 1 and 2, including
word explanations). I hope there isn't anything else that I missed.
I offer you my apology for not mentioning your already existing
English translation of verse 1, when I sent in a German translation
a couple of days ago. I simply wasn't aware of it!