Note to Eil Þdr 12III
[5] hylriðar ‘the pool-steppers [= Þórr and Þjálfi]’: The present edn takes this word as a cpd in which the first element is hyl- ‘pool, deep place in a river’ and the second is ‑riði ‘one in motion’. Although the simplex riði m. is unattested, it could be a weak m. form of riða f. ‘rider, a moving woman’; cf. túnriða ‘witch’ (lit. ‘yard-rider’) or kveldriða ‘witch’ (lit. ‘evening-rider’). See also the cpd Ein(d)riði ‘one who goes alone’, one of Þórr’s names. Riði appears to be an agent noun from the strong verb ríða ‘ride, move back and forth’ (Fritzner: riða). The cpd refers to Þórr and Þjálfi and it is not a kenning although it resembles a kenning structurally. Cf. similar explanations in Reichardt (1948, 366) and Kiil (1956, 134). Finnur Jónsson (1900b, 390; Skj B) finds the word opaque, while Kock (NN §457), incomprehensibly, believes that hylriði refers to a wolf.
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.
- Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
- Finnur Jónsson. 1900b. ‘Þórsdrápa Eilífs Goðrúnarsonar’. Oversigt over det Kgl. Danske videnskabernes selskabs forhandlinger 1900, 369-410.
- Kiil, Vilhelm. 1956. ‘Eilífr Goðrúnarson’s Þórsdrápa’. ANF 71, 89-167.
- Reichardt, Konstantin. 1948. ‘Die Thórsdrápa des Eilífr Goðrúnarson: Textinterpretation’. PMLA 63, 329-91.