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bold letters are in alliteration (
stuiluri
). There are two alliterating sounds (
stuðlar
) in the odd lines and one (the ‘head letter’ or
hofudstafur
) that comes at the start of the even lines: stórt, stáli and stafnkvígs (the höfufistafur) in lines 1–2. The sounds represented with italics are internal rhyme. They are either half-rhyme (
skothending
) as in
þél
and
stál
i or full rhyme (
adalhending
) as in
stafn
kvígs and
jafnan.
     
þ
él
högr stórt fyr
stál
i
     
With its chisel of snow, the headwind,
     
stafn
kvigs á veg
jafn
an
     
scourge of the mast, mightily
     
út með éla
meitli
     
hones its file by the prow
     
and
ær jötunn v
and
ar
     
on the path that my sea-bull treads.
     
en sv
al
búinn
sel
ju
     
In gusts of wind, that chillful
     
sverfr
etrar
vanr
peiri
     
destroyer of timber planes down
     
G
es
tils álft með g
ust
um
     
the planks before the head
     
gandr
of stál fyr br
and
i.
     
of my sea-king’s swan.
     
     
    The greatest difficulty in understanding dróttkvardi, at least for the beginner, may be its departure from conventional prose word order. For example, the logical order of the words in this verse would be this:
Andarrjotunn vandar hSggr stórt pelfyr stdli medela meitliútdjafnan veg stafnkvigs, ensvalbúinn seliju gandr sverfr eirar vanr of stál peiri Gestilsdlft med gustum fyr brandi
. To convey some idea of the challenge faced by the translator of such verse, here is a very literal and somewhat nonsensical rendering of the rearranged words:
    ‘The opposite-rowing giant of the mast strikes hard, a file before the prow, with a chisel of sudden hail out on the smooth road of the young prow bull, and a cold wolf of wood files mercilessly with it about the prow of Gestil’s swan with gusts before the decorated prow board.’
    What makes this verse far from nonsensical in the original language is its use of a form of metaphor called
kenning
. Kennings consist of two parts: one which calls a thing by the name of something that it is not and then a second part which modifies the first in such a way as to make it poetically appropriate. Here ‘giant’ (or ‘enemy’) is one half of a kenning for ‘wind’, a thing that a giant is not. But when ‘of the mast’ is added to ‘enemy’, ‘enemy of the mast’ becomes a good metaphor for ‘wind’. Going through the rearranged phrases of this verse we might paraphrase it:
jötunn vandar
= giant (enemy) of the mast = wind;
andarr
= rowing in opposition: wind rowing in opposition = headwind
pelboggurstórt
= a file strikes hard
fyr stdli = before the bow stem
md meitli = with a chisel; éla = of sudden hail: a chisel of sudden hail = a storm
út á jafnan veg = out on the smooth road
stafnkvígs = prow + young bull’s; young prow bull’s = ship’s: ship’s smooth road = the sea
en svalbúinn = and a coldly dressed
gandr
= wolf (enemy);
selju
= wood (of which the ship is made): enemy of wood = wind
sverfr eirar vanr
= files without mercy
of stál peiri
= around the prow with it (i.e.
pél
, the file)
Gestilsdlft
= Gestil’s (a sea king’s) swan = ship
medgustumfyrbrandi
= with gusts of wind before the decorated prow board
     
----
    which are largely consistent with those of
Íslendingabók
and
Landnámabók
, including the settlement of Iceland, the establishment of a national government, the testing of its laws and constitution, the discovery of Greenland and North merica and the conversion to Christianity. Many of those great events can be confirmed by archaeology and the testimony of historical writing in other languages. By and large they must have happened more or less as they are said to happen in the fictional worlds of the sagas. They constitute a story, a national myth, within which the more local and detailed stories of the individual
Íslendinga sögur
take shape.

IV. THE AMERICAN ADVENTURE
     
    For readers interested in North America, few historical events in the sagas arouse greater