Steinarr Woman 1^III/1 — Mens ‘of the necklace’

notes

[1-2] mjúkstalls Synjar mens ‘of the soft place of the Syn <goddess> of the necklace [WOMAN]’: Mjúkstalls ‘of the soft place’ is a hap. leg. (a) In this edn Synjar mens is construed as a two-element woman-kenning of the familiar type ‘goddess of the necklace’ (Meissner 413; cf. Skj B and LP: men). The cpd mjúkstalls could be a periphrasis, perhaps euphemistic, for ‘bed’, with the kenning based on the gen. Synjar denoting its possessor. The noun stallr has a variety of senses deriving from a central meaning of ‘raised platform’ (cf. CVC: stallr; Fritzner: stallr 1; LP: stallr 1); the structures so designated, such as the altar and the step of a mast, are typically rigid, hence the first element of the cpd distinguishes this type of stallr from them. Beds that can be detected in archaeological investigations of medieval Icelandic dwellings are typically on raised platforms above floor-level (Arnheiður Sigurðardóttir 1970). For the use of the adj. mjúkr ‘soft’ in relation to ‘bed’ see Fritzner: mjúkr 1 and the ONP citations of mjúkr; for a male speaker contemplating a woman’s bed, cf. Hfr Lv 19^V (Hallfr 22), Tindr Hákdr 1/1-4^I and Þklypp Lv 1/1-4^I. This interpretation removes the need to posit a superfluous kenning determinant in one or other of the two kennings in the stanza. The goddess-name Syn lit. ‘refusal’ may have been selected to suit a context where the woman is evidently denying the male speaker’s wishes. The characterisation of her as mildr ‘gracious’, a word collocated with mjúkr ‘soft’ here and elsewhere (ONP: mjúkr), is presumably ironic. (b) In SnE 1848-87, followed by Kock (NN §902 and Skald) and Faulkes (SnE 1998, II, 356), mjúkstalls (l. 2) is combined with Synjar mens ‘of the Syn of the necklace’ (l. 1) to produce a woman-kenning, Syn mjúkstalls mens ‘Syn <goddess> of the soft place of the necklace’. This ‘soft place’ would necessarily be the neck, since the noun men is not attested in the sense ‘ring’, ‘arm-ring’ but solely as ‘necklace-ring’ (LP: men). The solution ‘neck’ is indeed proposed by Faulkes (cf. his translation ‘necklace-stand’; Faulkes 1987, 115), but the woman-kenning that results (‘goddess of the neck’) is nowhere attested and the adj. mjúkr seems incongruous used of the neck. Solution as ‘arm’ (NN §902, following SnE 1848-87), has attracted greater favour from scholars, based on the large number of woman-kennings of the ‘goddess of the ring’ type, but in these the determinant must logically denote a generic ring or arm-ring (cf. Meissner 419-20), not a necklace. Perhaps with this objection tacitly in mind, Finnur Jónsson construes mjúkstalls (Skj B; LP: mjúkstallr) with the second kenning in the stanza (see Note to ll. 3, 4).

kennings

• mildrar Synjar mens — of the gracious Syn <goddess> of the necklace [WOMAN]

grammar