Note to Ótt Hfl 1^I

[5-8]: These are very difficult lines, for which considerable emendation may be needed. All previous commentators agree in reading nistanda ‘feeder’ for ms. ‘sistanda’ as base-word of a warrior-kenning. Parallels elsewhere in the later skaldic corpus include ESk Geisl 25/6^VII nistandi ulfs ‘feeder of the wolf’ and Gkǫrt Lv 1/5^IV valnistandi ‘hawk-feeder’. Most eds emend ms. grams ‘of the king’, and it is reasonable to think that scribes may have erroneously assumed a phrase grams Gauta ‘king of the Gautar’, but there are varying views about the best emendation, and about the interpretation of glað-. (a) Skj B takes glað as ‘horse’ (cf. LP: glaðr 1), and emends ms. grams ‘of the king’ to gífrs ‘of the giantess’ to produce a kenning gífrs glaðnistandi ‘feeder of the horse of the giantess [(lit. horse-feeder of the giantess) WOLF > WARRIOR]’. However, this entails a very complex word order in ll. 5-8: Telk þat lengi mitt verk at dýrka gífrs glaðnistanda, dýr [sic] þengill, síz mistak dǫglings Gauta ‘I reckon it for a long time my work to glorify the feeder of the horse of the giantess, excellent lord, since I have lost the prince of the Gautar’. (b) Kock (NN §723), followed here, argues that ms. grams should be garms ‘of the dog’, that Gauta is not the ethnic name but rather the Óðinn-name (i.e. gen. sg. of Gauti rather than gen. pl. of Gautar), and that glað has its more usual sense ‘glad’ rather than ‘horse’. Another kenning in which ‘wolf’ is referred to as the dog of Óðinn is HHund I 13/7 grey Viðris (NK 132). Under this interpretation garms ... mis(s)tak (ll. 5-6) forms a coordinate clause. The interaction of the two clauses expresses well both Óttarr’s grief for Óláfr Eiríksson and his hopes for new service with Óláfr Haraldsson. (c) Rainford (1995, 63) suggests a middle course in which Garmr might simply be taken as a heiti for ‘wolf’ (cf., perhaps, Mánagarmr ‘moon-hound’ referring to a wolf in SnE 2005, 14; see Note to Gsind Hákdr 8/8). Hence the kenning would be glaðnistandi Garms ‘glad feeder of the Garmr [WARRIOR]’. In favour of this would be Einarr Skúlason’s kenning nistandi ulfs ‘feeder of the wolf’ in Geisl 25/6^VII, a poem explicitly indebted to Óttarr’s poem on Óláfr Haraldsson (see Geisl 12^VII), which may indicate that Einarr took Óttarr’s example to be nistandi Garms. The addition of Gauta ‘of the Gautar’ to the warrior-kenning to produce a reference to Óláfr Eiríksson, King of the Swedes, would be appropriate, but such constructions are unusual.

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. NK = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. I: Text. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
6. SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
7. Rainford, Jessica. 1995. ‘Óláfr Haraldsson, King and Saint of Norway, and the Development of Skaldic Style (ca.1015-ca.1153)’. D. Phil. thesis. University of Oxford.
8. Internal references
9. Kari Ellen Gade 2017, ‘(Biography of) Einarr Skúlason’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 140.
10. Martin Chase (ed.) 2007, ‘Einarr Skúlason, Geisli 12’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 17.
11. Martin Chase (ed.) 2007, ‘Einarr Skúlason, Geisli 25’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 27.
12. Not published: do not cite (Gkǫrt Lv 1^IV)
13. Russell Poole (ed.) 2012, ‘Guthormr sindri, Hákonardrápa 8’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 168.