Note to Gamlkan Has 1^VII

[6] gnýlundum (dat. pl.): Lit. ‘din-trees’. B is badly worn at this point, and one cannot be certain of the fourth letter. Finnur Jónsson and Rydberg read ‘gnýiunndum’ with confidence, while the 399a-bˣ copyist is certain of ‘gnýunndum’. There have been several attempts to make sense of this reading. Neither Sveinbjörn Egilsson nor Kempff saw any need to emend, both taking gnýundum stála to be a man-kenning, Sveinbjörn (1860, 257a) relating gnýundum to gnúa ‘to rub’ and Kempff (1867, 22) assuming it to derive from gnýja ‘to sound’. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) emends to gnýviðum (dat. pl.) ‘din-trees’. Jón Helgason (1935-6, 252) rejects the interpretations of both Sveinbjörn and Kempff, and notes that, since the hole in B is over what previous eds read as an ‘i’, ‘there is nothing against our assuming that this letter was an “l”, the upper part of which is now missing’. Jón’s reconstruction, which is adopted here, is therefore in accord with the spirit of Finnur’s emendation but, as he says, ‘is closer to what survives than gnýviðum’. Although the cpd gnýlundum ‘din-trees’ is not otherwise attested, gnýlundum stála would be partially paralleled by the warrior-kenning lundr stála ‘tree of spears’, which occurs in a poorly-preserved lv. attributed to Bjhít Lv 15/6^V (ÍF 3, 155).

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. Jón Helgason. 1935-6. ‘Til skjaldedigtningen’. APS 10, 250-64.
4. Kempff, Hjalmar, ed. 1867. Kaniken Gamles ‘Harmsól’ (Sol i Sorgen): isländskt andligt qväde från medeltiden med öfversättning och förklaringar. Uppsala: Edquist & Berglund.
5. ÍF 3 = Borgfirðinga sǫgur. Ed. Sigurður Nordal and Guðni Jónsson. 1938.
6. Internal references
7. Alison Finlay (ed.) 2022, ‘Bjarnar saga Hítdœlakappa 20 (Bjǫrn Hítdœlakappi Arngeirsson, Lausavísur 15)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 87.