Note to Anon 732b 2^III

[All]: Finnur Jónsson (1886a, 194) originally proposed that the stanza mocks a person waterproofing the leather overalls worn by sailors and fishermen (on which see Note to l. 2); in LP he suggests that the stanza might refer equally well to a tanner (LP: húð; leðr; leistr; cf. Jón Helgason 1968, 58). Neither interpretation captures the range of tasks suggested in the poet’s choice of terms. He praises the ‘very wise duke of skins’ (margsvinnr dux fyr skinnum) as if he were a master of more courtly arts, but the determinants in the series of kenning-like constructions that he employs relate to successive stages in the evisceration and flaying of a slaughtered sheep or cow, and the processing of its skin: the stripping from the carcass of fat, offal, and hide (ll. 1-4); tanning of the hide in fish-oil, treatment of the tanned leather with dubbin and the final production of worked leather goods (ll. 5-8). For similar kennings and circumlocutions for people engaged in menial work, see Sigv Austv 7/5^I, SnH Lv 1/8^II, Anon GnóðÁsm 1/2^III, Anon (LaufE) 5 and Án Lv 4^VIII (Án 4), Note to [All]. Cf. also the alternative reading of Refr Frag 2^III suggested in the Note to l. 2, ad loc.

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. Finnur Jónsson. 1886a. ‘Lønskrift og lejlighedsoptegnelser fra et par islandske håndskrifter’. In Kålund et al. 1884-91, 185-94.
4. Jón Helgason, ed. 1968. Skjaldevers. 3rd edn. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
5. Internal references
6. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from Laufás Edda 5’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 642.
7. Edith Marold (ed.) 2017, ‘Hofgarða-Refr Gestsson, Fragments 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 261.
8. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Sneglu-Halli, Lausavísur 1’ 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. 324-5.
9. Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Áns saga bogsveigis 4 (Án bogsveigir, Lausavísur 4)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 11.
10. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Poems, Gnóðar-Ásmundar drápa 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. 626.