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Atsókn vetrar – Winter’s Attack,
by Fridrikr Tomasson

DSC01978This poem in Old Norse is in the form called dróttkvaett which has the following main characteristics:

  • Eight lines to a stanza
  • Six syllables to a line
  • Alliteration (repeating beginning sounds)
  • Internal rhyming (imperfect in the odd-numbered lines, perfect in the even-numbered lines)
  • Use of kennings (metaphorical figures)

This particular verse is intended to celebrate the coming of winter. Following the verse, there is a word-for-word translation, a prose version in proper English, and a list of kennings used in the poem.

Þagnaðu er þegnar
Þorra fuglar bruggað;
festar vetrar fastliga
fagra kæfaðu garða;
hremddu á hrímþursar
hringagrundar brúnhvítr;
jálkar frystat Jökulls
ýsna fyrir lýskála.

Prose order translation of the poem:

Grew silent when thegn of Thorri birds schemed; Chains of winter tightly fair choked fields; Clutched at rime-thurses rings of the ground white-browed; The mares froze of Jokull haddock’s over fish-hall.

Regular prose order translation:

Birds grew silent when Thorri’s thegn schemed. Chains of winter tightly choked fair fields. White-browed rime-thurses clutched at ground-rings. Jokull’s mares froze over the haddock’s fish-hall.

Kennings used in this poem:

þegna Þorra – Thora’s thegn – Thorri is the goddess of winter, her thegn is winter weather.

festar vetrar – chains of winter – snow drifts & ice.

hrímþursar – rime-thurses (ice-giants) – winter storms

hringagrundar – rings of the ground – fields

jálkar Jökulls – Jökul’s mare – ice floes. Jökull is the name given to the glaciers. His horse (mare) is the ice he rides into the valleys.

lýskála – fish-hall – a lake or pond.