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Flokkr for Dofn-Hallr Morrisson

From EastKingdomWiki

Written in drottkvaett in September, A.S. 41 by Toki Redbeard. Master Dofn-Hallr Morrisson has been Queen’s Bard, and King’s and Queen’s Archery Champion. He is an irrepressible maker-of-stuff.

When do you slumber, whiskered
wight[1], between your efforts?
Limbs of jotuns[2] labor,
lathe they turn, unceasing.
Some find time for sleeping,
to soothe the din of working.
Few your fallow moments,
few you spend unmoving.

Into tussle took you
terrifying striker.[3]
To king’s side while keeping,
came your rain of arrows.
Flight-swifts[4] with cruel fierceness,
foemen’s white shields splintered.
Red the eyes e’er ready,
resting not, for killing.

Æsir’s drink[5] came ever
easy for you, speech-friend.
To gold-shunner[6] giving
great draughts from your mead horn.
Earned wisdom now waxing
well into day’s evening.
Foam of fjord-bone dwellers,[7]
famous one, I give you.


© Michael Dixon

Footnotes

  1. An archaic word for "man."
  2. giants
  3. A weapon, in this case a bow
  4. Arrows.
  5. The Mead of Poetry
  6. Generous
  7. Poetry - "fjord bone" is rock, so rock-dwellers ("dwarves",) "foam" refers to ale or mead, "dwarves mead" is the Mead of Poetry. In drottkvaett, kennings like these can frequently get very complex.