Note to Rv Lv 34^III

[5] hauðri heiðis ‘land of the hawk [ARM/HAND (mund ‘dowry’)]’: Some form of emendation is clearly required and here Bibire’s (1988) proposed reading heiðis is accepted. The arm/hand-kenning itself is of a well-established type (Meissner 141-2); the question is what it might mean in this context. Here, it is assumed that the underlying word-play is on mund meaning both ‘arm, hand’ and ‘dowry’, as explained in the preceding passage on woman-kennings (LaufE 1979, 293-4): … enn þui er riett ad kienna konu vid hónd … ad þad ä heiti saman og eign konunnar. svo sem hónd heitir mund, og so heimanfilgia hennar ‘… and therefore it is correct to refer to woman in terms of hand … because that (word) shares a synonym with the woman’s property, in that hand is called mund, as is her dowry’ (also SnE 1848-87, II, 632 and LaufE 1979, 377; discussed in Meissner 419). It is further suggested here that this is then used metonymically for ‘woman’, although close parallels are lacking. Alternatively, it could be viewed as a further reduced form of the compressed woman-kennings of the type ‘goddess of the arm’ (Meissner 419-20). Bibire (1988) claims the kenning ‘might be literal’, and translates ‘leaning on my arm’, though this is hard to reconcile with the syntax and the meanings of fylgjask ‘be with, accompany’. He also suggests word-play on armr ‘arm’ and harmr ‘sorrow’, giving ‘to accompany my grief’. Other interpretations offered in Skj B and NN §982 are even less convincing.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. SnE 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
4. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. LaufE 1979 = Faulkes, Anthony, ed. 1979. Edda Magnúsar Ólafssonar (Laufás Edda). RSÁM 13. Vol. I of Two Versions of Snorra Edda from the 17th Century. Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, 1977-9.
6. 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.
7. Bibire, Paul. 1988. ‘The Poetry of Earl Rǫgnvaldr’s Court’. In Crawford 1988, 208-40.