Ear-wiggers, excellent! I must try to work that word into
conversation... Quote (from Episode 3): "So it [Old Norse poetry] is
easy to translate?" "No, it's impossible to translate, and has never
been done successfully in any language." Actually, their translation
in Ep. 1 of the first stanza of Egill's Höfuðlausn backs this up; if I
heard correctly, they got one of the kennings a bit confused. They
had: "West over water I fared, bearing poetry's wave to the shore of
the war-god's heart. My course was set. I launched my oaken-craft at
the breaking of ice, loaded my cargo of praise aboard my ship aft."

Compare Gordon's more meaningful: "Westward I fared over the sea, and
I bore the sea of Odin's breast (i.e. I had a cargo of song), such was
my hap. I launched my ship as the ice broke, (and otherwise) I loaded
the back-cabin of that ship, my mind, with a portion of praise."

Vestr fórk of ver ... West fared I over the sea
en ek Viðris ber ... and I of-Odin bear
munstandar mar, ... the mind-strand's sea,
svás mitt of far. ... such was my hap.
Drók eik á flot ... I drew oak afloat (launched my ship)
við ísa brot, ... at the breaking of ice (in spring)
hlóðk mærðar hlut ... I loaded with a portion of praise/poetry
munknarrar skut. ... [my] mind-ship's back-cabin.

'Viðris munstandar marr' "the ocean of Odin's mind-strand" = poetry.
The strand, shore or land of the mind (wish, intention) = one's heart
or breast (seen as the seat of the emotions and location of thoughts
and wishes). The sea (liquid) of the Odin's breast is the mead of
poetry, which he swallowed so as to steal it. Gordon's note
interprets the back-cabin of Egill's mind as his "memory", where the
praise/poetry is stored. Ship is used as a mataphor for mind, but
he's also referring to the literal voyage that he's made across the
sea to England. He seems to be cunningly suggesting that he brought
the poem with him, deliberately, whereas according to the saga, he was
shipwrecked there in enemy territory and had to compose the poem in a
rush overnight to avoid getting killed by its subject, Eirik Bloodaxe!

The -k at the end of dró (infinitive: draga) and fór (fara) and hlóð
(hlaða) is a suffixed version of the personal pronoun 'ek' "I". This
suffixing happens occasionally in early prose texts, but is mainly
confined to poetry.

LN


--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "Patricia Wilson"
<originalpatricia@...> wrote:

>
> Oh Wow - firstly I have treated myself to a pair of "Eary-Wiggers" -

my name

> for a Headset - and then the remark of yours "I've just come across

this" it

> is always the case - I see that and have to take a closer look. You are
> always just coming across something of value
> Thanks
> Patricia
> Eary-Wiggers - my cousin's Grandbaby calls them that - has a name for
> everything
>
> -------Original Message-------
>
> From: llama_nom
> Date: 03/05/2007 13:01:37
> To: norse_course@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [norse_course] The Viking Way
>
>
> I've just come across this:
>
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/viking_way/index.shtml
>
> A BBC Radio 4 series of three programmes first broadcast in 2005. You
> can listen to them all free on the internet. There's even some
> snippets of Old Norse poetry in episode 3.
>
> LN
>