Note to Eil Þdr 2^III

[6] Skotum Gandvíkr ‘the Scots of Gandvík [GIANTS]’: Gandvík (lit. ‘bay of magic’) is the White Sea (see Note to SnSt Ht 1/8). The name probably refers to a belief that the area’s inhabitants practised witchcraft. The giant-kenning is based on the idea that giants lived in the desolate north. The Skálholt map drawn by the Icelandic teacher Sigurður Stefánsson in 1570 (a version of which is preserved in ms. GKS 2881 4°ˣ(10v)), shows that inhabitants north of Gandvík could be called giants: the map depicts a land bridge stretching from Greenland to Bjarmaland, which has the place names Riseland and Jǫtunheimar (both ‘land of giants’) written on it. According to the notes to the map, Jǫtunheimar was the kingdom of Geirrøðr and Guðmundr. Ethnic names often appear as determinants in giant-kennings (see Marold 1990a, 109-10), and such kennings are especially common in Þdr (see Introduction above). Usually, the named ethnicity would be an enemy of the Norwegians (cf. Lie 1976, 398; Clunies Ross 1978b, 287-8; Frank 1986, 101-2).

References

1. Bibliography
2. Clunies Ross, Margaret. 1978b. ‘Style and Authorial Presence in Skaldic Mythological Poetry’. SBVS 20, 276-304.
3. Frank, Roberta. 1986. ‘Hand Tools and Power Tools in Eilífr’s Þórsdrápa’. In Lindow et al. 1986, 94-109.
4. Marold, Edith. 1990a. ‘Skaldendichtung und Mythologie’. In Pàroli 1990, 107-30.
5. Lie, Hallvard. 1976. ‘Þórsdrápa’. KLNM 20, 397-400.
6. Internal references
7. Edith Marold with the assistance of Vivian Busch, Jana Krüger, Ann-Dörte Kyas and Katharina Seidel, translated from German by John Foulks 2017, ‘ Eilífr Goðrúnarson, Þórsdrápa’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 68. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1170> (accessed 23 May 2024)
8. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1104.
9. Not published: do not cite ()