Note to Eil Þdr 9III
[1, 4] sverðrunnit fen Fríðar ‘the sword-filled fen of Fríðr <female mythical being> [RIVER]’: Sverðrunnit lit. ‘running with swords’. Kock (NN §2250, followed by Reichardt 1948, 354) rightly rejects Finnur Jónsson’s (1900b, 385-6; Skj B) emendation to svarðrunnit ‘streaming over the greensward’. He calls attention to Slíðr, the sword-filled underworld river in Vsp 36/1-4 (also mentioned in Grí 28/6), and the phrase hlaupár hjalts ‘the fast-flowing streams of the sword’ in st. 6/3, 4 (see Note there) is enough to justify adhering to the mss here. In both places, the river appears to be personified as a female mythical figure whose name does not have a determinant. The same is true of Mǫrn (st. 8; cf. st. 10/5). Finnur Jónsson’s emendation to svarðrunnit, lit. ‘flowing over the scalp’ (adopted by Clunies Ross 1981, 375), goes against all mss and is only comprehensible on the unexpressed assumption that grass, seen as the hair of the earth, makes the ‘scalp of the earth’ a field or meadow.
References
- Bibliography
- Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
- NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- Clunies Ross, Margaret. 1981. ‘An Interpretation of the Myth of Þórr’s Encounter with Geirrøðr and his Daughters’. In Dronke et al. 1981, 370-91.
- Reichardt, Konstantin. 1948. ‘Die Thórsdrápa des Eilífr Goðrúnarson: Textinterpretation’. PMLA 63, 329-91.
- Internal references
- Not published: do not cite ()
- Not published: do not cite ()