Note to Gestumbl Heiðr 21^VIII (Heiðr 68)

[3]: A difficult phrase, of which the implications are unclear. It also appears as l. 3 of the following two riddles. The preposition at seems to mean that the father’s forvitni has somehow motivated the wave-maidens’ actions in ll. 1-2. If forvitni is understood in its usual sense of ‘curiosity’, and if Ægir is the faðir ‘father’ in question, a desire to know more about the world may be implied; the Ægir portrayed in the frame story of Skm is certainly curious about the Æsir and their deeds. Alternatively, Finnur Jónsson (LP) suggested that here forvitni may mean begœrlidhed, ønske ‘covetousness, desire’, and Clunies Ross (1994b, 175) thinks it probable that the sea was seen by early Scandinavian societies as ‘an entity where male and female principles met and mingled’, suggesting that ‘as both waves and ocean are formed from the same substance, it might be expected that the male-female relationship would have been thought of as incestuous’. On the formula as a potential reflex of traditions about valkyries or other supernatural women, see Burrows (2013).

References

1. Bibliography
2. 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.
3. Clunies Ross, Margaret. 1994b. Prolonged Echoes: Old Norse Myths in Medieval Northern Society. Volume 1: The Myths. VC 7. [Odense]: Odense University Press.
4. Burrows, Hannah. 2013. ‘Enigma Variations: Hervarar saga’s Wave-Riddles and Supernatural Women in Old Norse Poetic Tradition’. JEGP 112, 194-216.
5. Internal references
6. (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=112> (accessed 6 May 2024)