Note to Eil Þdr 15^III

[1] hôm loga himna ‘the high flame of the skies [LIGHTNING]’: Although this interpretation differs from the story in Skm (SnE), where the giantesses are overcome not by thunder and lightning but by Þórr forcing his chair back at them with Gríðarvǫlr, the present version is supported by the parallel version in Saxo (Saxo 2005, I, 8, 14, 1-20, pp. 560-73). There, the giantesses are said to have been struck by powerful lightning bolts. Most earlier eds combine hôm dat. ‘high’ with either fylvingum ‘swords’ (Finnur Jónsson 1900b, 394; Skj B) or himni ‘to the sky’ (NN §462; Reichardt 1948, 375-6). As Kock (NN §2107) later points out, these interpretations are untenable metrically, since a cpd is to be expected here; cf. Kuhn (1983, 142-3), who observes that metrical positions 2-5 in Type C odd lines are usually occupied by a cpd. However, attempts to interpret the mss’ ‘hamloga’ as a cpd fail: ‘blushing, ruddiness’ (Kiil 1956, 143) is unconvincing because hamr always means ‘body’ or ‘shape’, not ‘face’. Kock (NN §2107, followed by Reichardt 1948, 375) suggests emending ‘ham-’ to húm- ‘darkness’, and he construes himni húmloga ‘with the sky of the dark flame’ as a kenning for ‘roof’, referring to the scenery of a cave beneath the mountains. There is no comparable kenning in the surviving corpus of skaldic poetry, however. This edn takes a different course: according to Kuhn (1983, 142-3), who gives a series of supporting examples, metrical positions 2-4 in Type C odd lines can be occupied in exceptional cases by a nominal phrase consisting of an attributive adj. in position 2 qualifying a noun in positions 3-4. Hence hôm loga can be construed as ‘the high flame’. The emendation of himni dat. sg. to himna gen. pl. then provides a determinant in a kenning for ‘lightning’ (‘the high flame of the skies’).

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. Kuhn, Hans (1899). 1983. Das Dróttkvætt. Heidelberg: Winter.
5. Saxo 2005 = Friis-Jensen, Karsten, ed. 2005. Saxo Grammaticus: Gesta Danorum / Danmarkshistorien. Trans. Peter Zeeberg. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Det danske sprog- og litteraturselskab & Gads forlag.
6. Finnur Jónsson. 1900b. ‘Þórsdrápa Eilífs Goðrúnarsonar’. Oversigt over det Kgl. Danske videnskabernes selskabs forhandlinger 1900, 369-410.
7. Kiil, Vilhelm. 1956. ‘Eilífr Goðrúnarson’s Þórsdrápa’. ANF 71, 89-167.
8. Reichardt, Konstantin. 1948. ‘Die Thórsdrápa des Eilífr Goðrúnarson: Textinterpretation’. PMLA 63, 329-91.
9. Internal references
10. Edith Marold 2017, ‘Snorra Edda (Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál)’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].
11. (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 5 May 2024)