Þjóð Haustl 14III/3 — b*ǫr ‘the tree’
Eðr of sér, es jǫtna
ótti lét of sóttan
hellis b*ǫr, á hyrjar,
haugs Grjótúna, baugi.
Ók at ísarnleiki
Jarðar sunr, en dunði
— móðr svall Meila blóða —
mána vegr und hônum.
Eðr of sér á baugi hyrjar, es ótti jǫtna lét of sóttan b*ǫr hellis haugs Grjótúna. Sunr Jarðar ók at ísarnleiki, en vegr mána dunði und hônum; móðr blóða Meila svall.
Furthermore one can see on the shield-ring of fire, where the terror of giants [= Þórr] made a visit to the tree of the cave of the mound of Grjótún [= Grjótúnagarðar > GIANT = Hrungnir]. The son of Jǫrð <goddess> [= Þórr] drove to the iron-play [BATTLE], and the path of the moon [SKY/HEAVEN] resounded beneath him; the anger of the brother of Meili [= Þórr] swelled.
readings
[3] b*ǫr: ‘biꜹr’ R(23v), ‘maur’ Tˣ(24v), ‘borv’ W(51)
notes
[3, 4] b*ǫr hellis haugs Grjótúna ‘the tree of the cave of the mound of Grjótún [Grjótúnagarðar > GIANT = Hrungir]’: This edn follows Wisén (1886-9, II, 116), Åkerblom (1899a, 269-71) and Marold (1983, 168-9) in adopting W’s haugs (l. 4) over R, Tˣ’s haug and tentatively accepting Kock’s emendation bǫr for the various ms. forms of the second word in l. 3. This gives a formally unusual kenning for Hrungnir, in which bǫr hellis ‘the tree of the cave’ refers to a ‘giant’ in general while haugs Grjótúna ‘of the mound of Grjótún’ identifies Hrungnir by referring to his dwelling at Grjótún ‘Stones’-dwellings’ courts’ in the prose of Skm and said there to be ‘in the border-land’ (at landamæri). Haugs ‘of the mound’ appears to be structurally redundant, but ON haugr often refers to a burial mound, and giants are conventionally supposed to sit or dwell on them; cf. Þry 6/1, Skí 11/2. The identity and sense of the base-word given here as bǫr ‘tree’ is uncertain, and the word is likely to be corrupt in all mss. None of the ms. readings make sense without emendation, and no fully acceptable emendation has yet been proposed. The base-word is likely to be a term for ‘animal’, ‘(demonic) dweller’ or ‘inhabitant’ [of a cave], to judge by skaldic kenning-types for giants; Kock (NN §139) proposed bǫr(r) ‘tree’, which certainly appears as a base-word in man-kennings (cf. LP: bǫrr), but is not found elsewhere as the base-word of a giant-kenning. This emendation is followed by Faulkes (SnE 1998, I, 22, 170, II, 255), who, however, takes bǫrr as the base-word of a man-kenning, bǫrr hyrjar hellis ‘tree of the fire of the cave [GOLD > GENEROUS MAN]’, which he presumes to be a vocative address to the patron, Þorleifr. As he remarks (SnE 1998, I, 170), one of the problems with this proposed kenning is that there is no precedent for the gold-kenning type ‘fire of the cave’. Kock (NN §1018 Anm. 2) later proposed emending the base-word to bǫrg(r) ‘(castrated) boar’, but this is purely conjectural. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) does not attempt an interpretation of ‘hellis baur hyrjar’ (l. 3) and adopts R, Tˣ’s haug with Grjótúna to specify ‘the mound of Grjótún’ (l. 4) as the place Þórr visited. In this reading there is no kenning for Hrungnir in the stanza.
kennings
- b*ǫr hellis haugs Grjótúna. — the tree of the cave of the mound of Grjótún. [GIANT = Hrungnir]
grammar
case: acc.