Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, Lausavísur 5’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 169-71.
Varp ór þrætu þorpi
Þórr smiðbelgja stórra
hvapteldingum hǫldnum
hafra kjǫts at jǫtni.
Hljóðgreipum tók húða
hrøkkviskafls af afli
glaðr við galdra smiðju
Geirrøðr síu þeiri.
{Þórr stórra smiðbelgja} varp {hvapteldingum} ór {þorpi þrætu} at {hǫldnum jǫtni kjǫts hafra}. {Glaðr Geirrøðr hrøkkviskafls húða} tók {hljóðgreipum} við {þeiri síu {smiðju galdra}} af afli.
‘The Þórr <god> of huge forge-bellows [SMITH] flung jaw-lightnings [INSULTS] from his quarrel hamlet [MOUTH] at the proud giant of goats’ flesh [TANNER]. The cheerful Geirrøðr <giant> of the curving scraper of hides [TANNER] took in with his sound-grabbers [EARS] that molten substance of the smithy of spells [MOUTH > INSULTS], powerfully.’
In a ch. about King Haraldr’s dealings with Sneglu-Halli (SnH) and other skalds, the story relates how Þjóðólfr, walking along the street with the king, overhears a row between a tanner (or cobbler, sútari in Flat) and a blacksmith. Þjóðólfr is at first affronted by the king’s demand that he compose about this, but when the king adds that to make the task more challenging he should present the antagonists as the giant Geirrøðr and the god Þórr, he recites this st.; the king is duly impressed by it and immediately commissions Lv 6. (The two sts are in reverse order in Flat and 593b.)
If the st. was truly extemporized, its royal patron was right to be impressed. The complex and innovative imagery creates parallels and oppositions between the quarrelling tanner and smith, while casting them as the antagonists in the mythical story of the god Þórr’s encounter with the giant Geirrøðr. The smith figures, appropriately, as Þórr, who in the Geirrøðr story lacks his famous hammer but has a pair of iron gloves. The story is told, cryptically, in Eilífr Goðrúnarson’s Þórsdrápa (Eil ÞdrIII), which is preserved, with prose paraphrase, in SnE (1998, I, 24-30). At its centre, Geirrøðr (supposedly in sport) throws a lump of molten iron at Þórr, who throws it back at, and through, the giant, and this is transformed into a metaphor for speech in Þjóðólfr’s skit. There is a good deal of vocabulary in common between Þjóðólfr’s Lv 5-6 and Þdr, e.g. tangar ‘tongs’ (Þdr 16/6III, with slight emendation, and Lv 6/8), afli ‘strength/forge’ (Þdr 16/7III and Lv 5/6), síu ‘molten substance’ (Þdr 18/4III and Lv 6/8) and greip ‘grabber’ (Þdr 17/8III and Lv 5/5); Greip is also the name of one of Geirrøðr’s daughters.
Text is based on reconstruction from the base text and variant apparatus and may contain alternative spellings and other normalisations not visible in the manuscript text. Transcriptions may not have been checked and should not be cited.
Varp ór þrætu þorpi
Þórr smiðbelgja stórra
hvatteldingum hǫldnum
hafra kjǫts at jǫtni.
Hljóðgreipum tók húða
hrøkkviskafls ór afli
glaðr við galdra smiðju
Geirrøðr †siǫ† þeiri.
Varp or þretoþorpi þórr smiþbelgia stórra hvatt elldingom hꜹlldnom hafra kiǫtz at iǫtni hlioð greipom | tok hvda hrꜹccvi scafls or afli glaþr við galldra smiþio geirrǫðr siǫ þeiri ·
(DW)
Varp ór þorpi
Þórr smiðbelgja stórra
hvatteldingum hǫldnum
hafra kjǫts at jǫtni.
Hljóðgreipum tók húða
hrøkkvi†skalfs† ór afli
glaðr við galdra smiðju
Geirrøðr síu †þ[...]e†.
Varp ór þrætu þorpi
Þórr smið-belgjum stórum
hvatt†elldligum† hǫldnum
hafra kjǫts at jǫtni.
Hljóðgreipum greip húða
hrøkkviskafls ór afli
glaðr í galdra smiðju
Geirrøðr síu þeiri.
Varp ór þrætu þorpi
Þórr smiðbelgja stórra
†huafft†eldingum hǫldnum
hafra kjǫts at jǫtni.
Hljóðgreipum tók húðar
†hrauki††kafls† af afli
glaðr við galdra smiðju
Geirrøðr sinn þeiri.
Varp ór þrætu þorpi
Þórr smiðbelgja stórra
hrosseldingum †holdvm†
hafra kjǫts at jǫtni.
†hliodsgnipvm† tók húðar
hrøkkviskafls at afli
glaðr við galdra smíði
Geirrøðr síu †þeirre†.
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