Note to Eil Þdr 15^III

[2] hallvallar ‘of the sloping-plain [MOUNTAINS]’: This interpretation requires tmesis, hall- fylvingum ‑vallar, which is acceptable here because the two elements of the cpd are placed in a single line and separated by a single word. This allows for a straightforward interpretation of this line. Sveinbjörn Egilsson (1851, 19), Finnur Jónsson (1900b, 394; Skj B; LP: hallvǫllr) and Kiil (1956, 143) also assume such a tmesis; Kock (NN §462) rejects tmesis but provides no satisfactory explanation for his hallfylvingum vallar ‘the tilting staffs of the plain’ (see the previous Note). Reichardt (1948, 376) translates the line simply as ‘staffs’. Hallvǫllr can be a cpd with hallr ‘sloping, tilting’, hallr m. ‘slope’ (see LP: 2. hallr) or hallr m. ‘stone’ as the first element and vǫllr m. ‘field, meadow’ as the second (see Note to st. 8/1-2 above). Hallr in the sense ‘sloping’ (adj.), rather than hallr ‘stone’, has been adopted here because hallvallar is the determinant in a kenning for ‘stone’ (fylvingum hallvallar ‘by the nuts of the sloping-plain [MOUNTAINS > STONES]’; see the previous Note). If one were to translate hallvallar as ‘stone-slope’, the referent ‘stone’ would be duplicated in the kenning, which ought to be avoided according to the rules of kenning formation.

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. 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.
5. Finnur Jónsson. 1900b. ‘Þórsdrápa Eilífs Goðrúnarsonar’. Oversigt over det Kgl. Danske videnskabernes selskabs forhandlinger 1900, 369-410.
6. Kiil, Vilhelm. 1956. ‘Eilífr Goðrúnarson’s Þórsdrápa’. ANF 71, 89-167.
7. Reichardt, Konstantin. 1948. ‘Die Thórsdrápa des Eilífr Goðrúnarson: Textinterpretation’. PMLA 63, 329-91.
8. Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 1851. Tvö brot af Haustlaung og Þórsdrápa. Reykjavík: Prentað á kostnað skólasjóðsins.