Gríml Lv 3^VIII (GrL 5)/6 — Hrungnis ‘of Hrungnir <giant>’

readings

[6] Hrungnis: Rögnis 471

notes

[6] Hrungnis ‘of Hrungnir <giant>’: Both this and the reading Rögnis are plausible, but 343a’s Hrungnis is probably preferable to the 471 variant, despite the fact that Rögnis provides the line with conventional alliteration (see below). Hrungnir is immediately recognizable as the name of a giant, and there are other examples of giantess-kennings with a word for ‘woman’ as base-word and the pers. n. of a giant as determinant (Meissner 398; GrL 3/2). Hrungnir is the name of a giant whom the god Þórr kills in single combat; the story is narrated in Þjóð Haustl 14-20^III and in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 20-2) and mentioned or alluded to in a number of other skaldic and eddic poems. If the reading Hrungnis is retained, the line appears to contain an example of alliteration between <r> and <hr>. There are parallels for this in eddic verse, e.g. Hamð 25/1-2 (NK 273) Þá hraut við | inn reginkunngi ‘Then the one of divine descent/the very wise one roared’. In this case and others, where <hv> appears to alliterate with <v>, some eds think that the initial [h] was weakened, allowing poets to use words beginning with <hr> or <hv> to alliterate with <r> and <v> respectively (cf. Dronke 1969, 240-2; Edd. Min. 86 n.). Sigrdr 15/5-6 (NK 193) may provide an indication that the initial <h> of the name Hrungnir was no longer pronounced or that there was an alternative form of that name or even a different mythic entity named Rungnir: á því hvéli, er snýz | undir reið Rungnis ‘On that wheel that turns beneath the wagon of Rungnir’. Rǫgnir is usually one of the god Óðinn’s names (LP: Rǫgnir), but in a kenning for ‘giant’ in Þjóð Haustl 4/5^III it appears to be used in the sense ‘lord, chief’ (see SnE 1998, II, 502 gloss to Rǫgnir). There are examples of erotic relationships between Óðinn and giantesses (e.g. between Óðinn and Gunnlǫð in Hávm 104-10 or between Óðinn and Skaði in Eyv Hál 2^I). Hence the expression Rögnis mellur ‘Rǫgnir’s [Óðinn’s] female lovers’ in 471 could be a kenning for ‘giantesses’. This however seems less appropriate in GrL, where the realm of the giants plays a large part, whilst the gods are not mentioned. There is no example for the usage of the simplex rǫgnir ‘lord, ruler’ as a term for ‘giant’. Hence it is unlikely that the expression in 471 should be interpreted as mellur rögnis ‘the female lovers of the ruler’ and as a kenning for ‘giantess’. If the alliterating words in this line are not reyna and Hrungnis then the only alternative is alliteration between the modal verb munu and mellur. In this case the head-stave (mellur) would be in the second lift of the second half-line, rather than in the first lift, and the first nominal form of the second half-line (Hrungnis) would not alliterate. Eddic poetry provides numerous examples of this non-compliance with the ‘rules’ for alliteration (on these ‘rules’ cf. von See 1967, 2, 19-20). — [6] mellur Hrungnis ‘the female lovers of Hrungnir <giant> [GIANTESSES]’: The word mella is used as a giantess-heiti in several skaldic poems, as a determinant in kennings for Þórr or for giants, e.g.: dolgs mellu ‘of the enemy of the giantess [= Þórr]’ (Eyv Lv 8/7-8^I); mellu mǫgfellandi ‘the feller of the kinsman of the giantess [(lit. ‘kinsman-feller of the giantess’) GIANT > = Þórr]’ (Steinunn Lv 2/3^V). In the kenning mellur Hrungnis in this stanza and in mellu grams hellis ‘mella of the lord of the cave [GIANT > GIANTESS]’ (EGils Selv 14/4^IV), however, mella is the base-word of a giantess-kenning and thus cannot itself have been understood to mean ‘giantess’; mella hellis grams is a designation for the sea-giantess Selkolla ‘Seal-Head’ (Meissner 398). Finnur Jónsson interprets mella in these two late instances as ‘female lover’ (LP: 1. mella). A passage in Flj ch. 5 (ÍF 11, 228) can be adduced to lend support to this interpretation: a giant refers to a human maiden he has abducted as his melluefni lit. ‘material for a mella’, by which he evidently means his future wife.

kennings

• Mellur Hrungnis — The female lovers of Hrungnir <giant> [GIANTESSES]

grammar