Note to Hskv Útdr 1II
[3] vígôsum ‘protective plankings’: Vígáss was a plank on board the ship that was used to support the víggyrðill, the protecting board-wall which was fastened on the inner side of the gunwale to increase its height during enemy attacks at sea (see Falk 1912, 13, 116). Skj B separates the two elements of the cpd and takes the first element with ríkjum ‘mighty’ (l. 4) (at móti vígríkjum gram ‘to the meeting with the battle-mighty monarch’), whereas the second element is construed as part of a kenning for ‘warriors’ (vísi hlóð sum Fjǫlnis hróts ‘the lord stacked the gods of Fjǫlnir’s roof’ (ll. 3-4)). That reading causes a very convoluted w. o. Kock (NN §§964, 2990C) construes the warrior-kenning vígsum Fjǫlnis hróts ‘the battle-gods of Fjǫlnir’s roof’ (i.e. ‘the battle-gods of the shield’) as an object of the verb hlaða ‘set up, stack, kill’ (so also ÍF 28), but that kenning is hyperdetermined since sum Fjǫlnis hróts ‘the gods of Fjǫlnir’s roof’ is a kenning for ‘warriors’.
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.
- Falk, Hjalmar. 1912. Altnordisches Seewesen. Wörter und Sachen 4. Heidelberg: Winter.
- ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.