[4] mens Selju ‘of Selja’s <island’s> necklace [SEA]’: Selja is an island off the western coast of Norway (see ESk Lv 14/3, Þul Eyja 2/1 and Þul Islands l. 3). It is taken here as a determinant in a kenning for ‘sea’, which again functions as a determinant in the ship-kenning meiðum mens Selju ‘the trees of the necklace of Selja’ (ll. 2-3) (for meiðr ‘tree’ as base-word in kennings for ‘ship’, see Meissner 221). ‘Fling ships onto the sea’ means ‘launch ships’ (see the similar meaning of the verb skjóta lit. ‘shoot’; LP: skjóta 2).
References
- Bibliography
- Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
- LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
- Internal references
- Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Eyja heiti 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 975.
- Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Einarr Skúlason, Lausavísur 14’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 177.
- Elena Gurevich 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Heiti for islands’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 994. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=2987> (accessed 3 June 2024)