Note to Eskál Vell 34I
[2-3] rómu Hôars ‘in the noise of Hárr <= Óðinn> [BATTLE]’: (a) This is taken here as a battle-kenning used adverbially to mean ‘in battle’ (so Faulkes, SnE 1998, I, 194). (b) As with st. 10/8 drífu Hôars ‘snow-storm of Hárr’, a temporal acc. is also possible (see Note). (c) Finnur Jónsson (Skj B; LP: róma 2) takes Hars as the base-word and the phrase as a warrior-kenning Hôars rómu ‘of the Hárr <= Óðinn> of battle’, a reference to the enemy and source of the showers of arrows. In this he is presumably following Konráð Gíslason (Nj 1875-8, II, 276 n. 243), who rejects rómu Hars as a battle-kenning because rómu itself can already signify ‘battle’. However, their view is contradicted by SnE, which cites this stanza to illustrate battle-kennings with base-words such as veðr ‘weather’ or gnýr ‘din’. Kock conjoins this kenning to sómmiðjungr (see Note to l. 2).
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.
- Nj 1875-89 = Konráð Gíslason and Eiríkur Jónsson. 1875-89. Njála: Udgivet efter gamle håndskrifter. Íslendingasögur udgivne efter gamle haandskrifter af Det Kongelige Nordiske Oldskrift-selskab 4. Copenhagen: Thiele.
- 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.
- SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
- Internal references
- Edith Marold 2017, ‘Snorra Edda (Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál)’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].