A STANZA ABOUT HRAFN SVEINBJARNARSON
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Sviðr braut sinni öðru
sundr menbroti grundar,
brast glymfjöturr Gestils,
garð, fyr knarrar barði,
áðr veðrlostinn vestan
veggöndur framir seggir,
meðr stigu glatt af græði
grund, við Nóreg bundu.
I came across the above stanza, in a mutilated form,
on a newsgroup the other day. It was accompanied by
some commentary, and what appeared to be a translation.
However, it was quite apparent that the poster doesn't
understand a word of Icelandic, so the "commentary" was
mostly gibberish.
In case some of you may have seen this posting and taken
it seriously, please take my advice, and ignore it. It
contains very bad linguistic information. Below, I
have provided a proper breakdown of the stanza, a literal
translation and minimal commentary. This is the first
stanza quoted in the Saga of Hrafn Sveinbjarnarson,
which forms a part of the compendium known as the Saga of
the Sturlungs, and is stated there to derive from a poem
about Hrafn, composed by Guðmundr Svertingsson in the 13th
century.
Let's have the stanza again:
Sviðr braut sinni öðru
sundr menbroti grundar,
brast glymfjöturr Gestils,
garð, fyr knarrar barði,
áðr veðrlostinn vestan
veggöndur framir seggir,
meðr stigu glatt af græði
grund, við Nóreg bundu.
The prose word-order is as follows. Note carefully how
the first two sentences are dove-tailed, and how the
final sentence is inserted into the subordinate clause
(which begins with 'áðr'):
Sviðr menbroti braut grundar garð sundr öðru sinni. Gestils
glymfjöturr brast fyr barði knarrar, áðr framir seggir bundu
veðrlostinn veggöndur vestan við Nóreg. Meðr stigu glatt
grund af græði.
Literally translated:
The wise necklace-breaker (man) broke the ground's fence
(sea) apart (i.e. sailed across the sea) a second time.
Gestill's noisy fetter (the ocean) shattered in front of
the prow of the ship, before the bold men bound the
wind-lashed sail-ski (ship) west of Norway. Men stepped
happily onto the ground from the ocean.
Kennings:
necklace-breaker = (generous) man
ground's fence = ocean
Gestill's noisy fetter = the ocean
sail-ski = ship
A few glosses:
sviðr = svinnr = wise, clever
braut <- brjóta
grund = ground, earth
brast <- bresta
Gestill = a 'sea-king'
knörr = ship (gen. knarrar)
-lostinn = properly pp. of ljósta 'strike'
veggr = wall, but sometimes = sail (in poetry)
öndurr = ski (öndur is acc.)
meðr = a ("poetic") plural of maðr = menn
stigu <- stíga
seggr = man
glatt = neut. of adj. glaðr, used adverbially
bundu <- binda
Here is the stanza again:
Sviðr braut sinni öðru
sundr menbroti grundar,
brast glymfjöturr Gestils,
garð, fyr knarrar barði,
áðr veðrlostinn vestan
veggöndur framir seggir,
meðr stigu glatt af græði
grund, við Nóreg bundu.
The alliteration is as follows:
Sviðr - Sinni - Sundr
Glym - Gestils - Garð
Veðr - Vestan - Vegg
Glatt - Græði - Grund