Note to EBrún Lv 1^III

[3-4] austrœnar snekkjur ilja ‘eastern warships of footsoles [SHOES]’: The adj. austrœnar (f. acc. pl.) can only qualify snekkjur (f. acc. pl.) ‘warships’ (l. 3). and is often used to refer to goods from Norway, seen from an Icelandic point of view (ONP: austrǿnn). Austrœnar snekkjur ilja ‘eastern warships of footsoles [SHOES]’ most likely means here that these are shoes from Norway. Kennings denoting ‘foot’ or ‘shoe(s)’ are attested elsewhere in poetry (Meissner 434), and the noun il f. ‘footsole’ is used as a determinant in several of these (see ÞjóðA Lv 6/6^II, ÞjóðA Lv 8/2^II, Eil Þdr 3/7). A ship-term as the base-word of such a kenning also appears in ÞjóðA Sex 20/7^II hleypikjólar hæls ‘the speeding ships of the heel [SHOES]’. In Skj A, Finnur Jónsson used only ms. 743ˣ, and he emended the reading ‘austrer aser’ to austrœnna (gen. pl.) sér to construe Orðrakkr rr austrœnna flausta ‘The word-bold captain of a Norwegian ship [a Norwegian merchant]’ (Skj B). Finnur’s emendation was adopted by Kock (Skald).

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj A = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15a. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. A: Tekst efter håndskrifterne. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1967. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
6. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
7. Internal references
8. Edith Marold (ed.) 2017, ‘Eilífr Goðrúnarson, Þórsdrápa 3’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 80.
9. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, Sexstefja 20’ 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. 134-5.