Drottkvaett

Hear the roar of Hárr's waves, (1) & (2)
Heed now, raven-feeders! (3)
Swan of corpses' counsel (4)
Calls for bold boast's swallow.

Spear-wives now are weaving;(5)
Weapon-Eir swift snaring.(6) & (7)
Song of wound-oar singers (8)
Set fast the war-fetters. (9)

Storm-hall rings with stool-quake; (10)
Star-trees felled in warring. (11)
Weak grow their wound-fires (12)
Wolf-greed slaked with bleeding.

Battle-speeders, we speak not
Spear-shakers, we fear not
Graceful Griffin, laughing
Great and long his fate-cloth.

[Listen to this poetry and pay attention those who would fight us! The wiser heads of Thought and Memory suggest you retract your words. The Valkyrie are weaving the cloth of this war and binding you with terror. The halls of Tir Righ's Prince tremble with fear, as your warriors lay dying. Your sword-arms grow weak, and wolves will feast on your blood. We do not need to boast of OUR prowess, we do not fear you. The Griffin stands and will stand with might and grace long after we are all food for ravens!]


(1) Hárr: "one-eyed", ie. Óðinn
(2) Hárr's waves is a reference to the mead of poetry
(3) "Raven-feeders" -Warriors
(4) "Swan of corpses" -Ravens; a reference, in context, to Óðinn's ravens Huginn (Thought) and Muninn (Memory)
(5) 'Spear-wives" -Valkyrie
(6) Pronounced "ey-r"; "ey" as in they; Eir is one of the Valkyrie ("help, mercy")
(7) Snaring = Snare-weave, a type of decorative weaving similar to soumak, used in the Viking Age to create pictorial cloth, (see A&S display at AT War; that's right boys and girls, I don't just do Viking smack-talk, I do Viking smack-weaving too!)
(8) "Wound-oar" -Sword
(9) The Valkyrie could weave war-fetters that could bind warriors with terror
(10) "Storm-hall" would normally be a reference to the sky; in context here, it refers to the 'hall' of the Tir Righ Prince; the stool thus is his throne.
(11) "Star-trees" -Trees are common metaphor for warriors, usually "tree of [some sort of weapon]"; in light of Tir Righ's heraldry, I thought star-tree would still work here.
(12) "Wound-fires" -Swords
(13) The Valkyrie rip the cloth off the loom and tear it to shreds when a king or prince dies….kind of.