Anon (TGT) 28III/4 — hálm ‘straw’
En skinnbjarta skortir
— skap kannask mér svanna —
— dýrs hon hætt at hváru —
hálmmein Njǫrun steina.
En skinnbjarta Njǫrun steina skortir hálmmein; skap svanna kannask mér; hon [e]s at hváru hætt dýr.
But the bright-skinned Njǫrun <goddess> of stones [WOMAN] lacks straw-harm [BLADE]; the temperament of the woman is known to me; she is in any case a dangerous animal.
readings
[4] hálmmein: ‘halm æín’ W
notes
[4] hálmmein ‘straw-harm [BLADE]’: Emendation is justified as W, the only witness here, frequently omits single letters which are otherwise preserved in A and B. Sveinbjörn Egilsson (SnE 1848-87, I, 332) suggested the emendation included here. The present interpretation is based on the use of a scythe or blade for cutting hay (cf. the Strøm whetstone (Run KJ50/2VI; RäF 110-13) h͡ah͡askaþih͡aþuligi ‘may it harm the hay [but] lie [peacefully] in a fight’, referring to the blade sharpened by the stone). This produces the sense that although the woman lacks a blade, she is nevertheless dangerous. Although a large number of kennings for ‘fire’ follow a similar pattern, they all have a determinant referring to wood or something wooden (wood, tree, forest, hall, branch; cf. Meissner 100-1), rather than ‘straw’, as here. (b) Most eds nevertheless interpret hálmmein ‘straw-harm’ as a kenning for ‘fire’. In this reading, the sense would then be metaphorical: eldr, for example, is used elsewhere to refer to passionate feelings (ONP: eldr 17). Björn Magnússon Ólsen (TGT 1884, 214) suggests an ofljóst construction involving the referent ‘fire’: fire is also birti ‘brightness’ which in turn is homonymous with skírleikr, which can also mean ‘purity, chastity’, producing the sense that the woman is unchaste. Finnur Jónsson adopts this interpretation in LP: halmein). However, birti is not recorded with the sense ‘fire’ (rather, ‘brightness’; cf. LP, Fritzner, ONP); and it is not included in the þulur among heiti for ‘fire’ (Þul Elds). (c) Kock (NN §1233B) also construes a kenning for ‘fire’ but emends to hallmeins ‘of the hall-harm [FIRE]’ by analogy with other kennings such as lífgalli hallar ‘life-harm of the hall [FIRE]’ (Sturl Hrafn 11/4II), but a cpd ‘hall-harm’ would be ON hallarmein (hypermetrical) rather than hallmein. He takes this with Njǫrun as a kenning for ‘woman’ (cf. Meissner 417) and translates: Lider än den blonda kvinnan … brist på ädla stenar, är hon farligt dyr i alla fall ‘Even if the blonde woman suffers a lack of precious stones, she is nonetheless dangerously expensive’. This reading requires two emendations, and Njǫrun steina is elsewhere attested in this metrical position as a kenning for ‘woman’ (TorfiV Lv 1/6V (Harð 1)).
kennings
- hálmmein; — straw-harm; [BLADE]