Note to Eyv Hál 4I
[8] riðu ‘fastened’: In this edn the reading of J2ˣ and F is adopted and construed as 3rd pers. pl. pret. ind. from the verb ríða (< *vríða) ‘twist, knit, braid, tie’ (cf. CVC: ríða; LP: 2. ríða; AEW: ríða 2). Earlier eds (Hkr 1893-1901; Skj B; ÍF 26; Hkr 1991) based themselves on Kˣ’s ‘reiðo’, emending to reiddu ‘caused to ride’. This would link to an extended image formed by the words tamði ‘tamed’ and jó ‘horse’. However, the reading in the other mss makes sense without emendation, while that of Kˣ may result from the comparative obscurity of ríða in the sense of ‘tie, twist’ etc. (there being only two other attestations in Old Norse poetry, LP: 2. ríða), and perhaps also from the influence of adjacent meið ‘tree’ (l. 8) and náreiðr ‘corpse-bearing’ (st. 5/1). Association by way of paronomasia with the more prevalent sense of ríða ‘ride’ would be very likely in such a context.
References
- Bibliography
- Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
- AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
- 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.
- CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
- ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
- Hkr 1893-1901 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1893-1901. Heimskringla: Nóregs konunga sǫgur af Snorri Sturluson. 4 vols. SUGNL 23. Copenhagen: Møller.
- Hkr 1991 = Bergljót S. Kristjánsdóttir et al., eds. 1991. Heimskringla. 3 vols. Reykjavík: Mál og menning.