Eil Þdr 9III/6 — kykva ‘of the quickeners’
Óðu fast, en Fríðar
flaut, eiðsvara Gauta
setrs víkingar snotrir
sverðrunnit fen, gunnar.
Þurði hrǫnn at herði
hauðrs run*kykva nauðar
jarðar skafls af afli
áss hretviðri blásin,
Eiðsvara víkingar setrs Gauta, snotrir gunnar, óðu fast, en sverðrunnit fen Fríðar flaut. Hretviðri blásin hrǫnn áss þurði af afli at herði nauðar skafls jarðar hauðrs run*kykva,
The oath-bound vikings of the seat of Gauti <= Óðinn> [= Ásgarðr > = Þórr and Þjálfi], wise in war, waded firmly, and the sword-filled fen of Fríðr <female mythical being> [RIVER] flowed. The tempest-blown wave of the ridge [RIVER] rushed mightily at the strengthener of the distress [TORMENTOR] of the quickeners of the stream of the land of the snow-drift of the earth [(lit. ‘stream-quickeners of the land of the snow-drift of the earth’) RIDGE > MOUNTAIN > RIVER > GIANTESSES > = Þórr],
readings
[6] ‑kykva: ‑kvikva Tˣ, ‘‑kvika’ W
notes
[6] run*kykva ‘of the quickeners of the stream’: The first element of this cpd appears as runn- in all mss. This could be the stem form of runnr ‘tree, bush’, but that does not lead to a viable interpretation here, while run-, on the other hand, does. Run is attested in the sense ‘a shallow stone watercourse over which water may flow from one body of water into another’, ‘a small, narrow watercourse between two lakes’ in Old Norwegian (Fritzner, Heggstad et al. 2008: run), and in New Norwegian it means a ‘watercourse between two lakes’ (cf. also Faroese run ‘light surf’; AEW: run). Its determinant here is hauðrs skafls jarðar ‘of the land of the snow-drift of the earth [RIDGE > MOUNTAINS]’, with which it forms an expression for ‘river’. Kykva is taken as gen. pl. of an agent noun *kykvir ‘quickener’, from a factitive verb *kykva ‘quicken’ (from ON kvikr ‘alive’; Reichardt 1948, 357). The ‘quickeners of the stream’ are the giantesses, and their ‘tormentor’ (herðir nauðar) is Þórr. Finnur Jónsson (1900b, 386-7; Skj B; LP: rúmbyggvir) emended the mss’ runnkykva to rúmbyggva, which he takes as the base-word of a giant-kenning (see Note to ll. 5-8 above). Kock’s (NN §452) and Kiil’s (1956, 124) interpretations are highly speculative and will not be discussed here.
kennings
- skafls jarðar hauðrs run*kykva, — of the quickeners of the stream of the land of the snow-drift of the earth, [GIANTESSES]
- herði nauðar skafls jarðar hauðrs run*kykva, — the strengthener of the distress of the quickeners of the stream of the land of the snow-drift of the earth, [= Þórr]
grammar
case: gen.
number: pl.