Note to Snæbj Lv 1^III

[6] líðmeldr ‘the ale-flour’: The interpretation of this cpd is the main crux of this helmingr, and there have been numerous attempts to solve it. (a) The earliest eds (SnE 1848-87, III; CPB II, 54-5) and Meissner 92 believed that the vowel of the first element of the cpd was short (lið- ‘ship, vehicle’) rather than long (líð- ‘ale, strong drink’), and they rearranged the elements of the kenning as meldr-lið Amlóða ‘flour-ship of Amlóði [MILL > SEA]’. Yet, lið ‘vehicle, ship’ does not form the required aðalhending with hlíðar ‘of the slope’. Finnur Jónsson (LP: lið 2) initially assumed that lið ‘ship’ might have had a long vowel (cf. Skj B) but later changed his opinion (Finnur Jónsson 1934a, 32). (b) The present edn is based on an interpretation proposed by Falk (1923a, 62-3). He adopted líð- in the sense ‘strong drink’ and took líðmeldr to mean ‘grain for brewing beer’ (cf. the meaning of meldr in the kenning grœðis meldrar ‘of the ocean of flour [ALE]’, HSt Rst 13/3^I). Líðmeldr means ‘that which is ground for drink’, which makes sense when one considers how sprouted malt is coarsely ground during the brewing process (see Unger 2004, 4). Falk’s taking líðmeldr as a single word enabled him to combine it directly with Amlóði to form a sand-kenning. The only problem with this interpretation is that Skm explicitly states that the present stanza refers to Amlóði’s mill (Amlóða kvern, SnE 1998, I, 38), but it is possible that Snorri was mistaken here. In the corpus of extant skaldic poetry, there are indeed two kennings that refer to the sea as the ‘mill of the islands’ (see Note to l. 1, 2), but these are not connected with the name Amlóði. (c) Kock (NN §573), Meissner (1927, 373) and Ohlmarks (1958, 524-5) make emendations, which will not be discussed here. For other, less plausible attempts at an interpretation, see also Krause (1969, 91) and Tolley (1994-7, 71).

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. 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. 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.
7. Krause, Arnulf. 1969. ‘Die Hamletstrophe Snæbjǫrns’. In Gellinek 1969, 87-97.
8. CPB = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and F. York Powell, eds. 1883. Corpus poeticum boreale: The Poetry of the Old Northern Tongue from the Earliest Times to the Thirteenth Century. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon. Rpt. 1965, New York: Russell & Russell.
9. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
10. Finnur Jónsson. 1934a. Tekstkritiske bemærkninger til skjaldekvad. Det kgl. danske videnskabernes selskab. Historisk-filologiske meddelelser 20.2. Copenhagen: Levin & Munksgaard.
11. Falk, Hjalmar. 1923a. Review of Rudolf Meissner. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. ANF 41, 59-89.
12. Ohlmarks, Åke. 1958. Tors skalder och Vite-Krists. Trosskiftestidens isländska furstelovskalder, 980-1013. Stockholm: Geber.
13. Meissner, Rudolf. 1927. ‘Der Name Hamlet’. IF 45, 370-94.
14. Tolley, Clive. 1994-7. ‘The Mill in Norse and Finnish Mythology’. SBVS 24, 63-82.
15. Unger, Richard. 2004. Beer in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
16. Internal references
17. (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 3 May 2024)
18. Rolf Stavnem (ed.) 2012, ‘Hallar-Steinn, Rekstefja 13’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 911.