ÚlfrU Húsdr 1III/4 — fjarðar ‘fjord’
Hjaldrgegnis telk Hildar
hugreifum Ôleifi
(hann vilk at gjǫf Grímnis)
geðfjarðar lô (kveðja).
Telk hugreifum Ôleifi lô geðfjarðar Hildar hjaldrgegnis; vilk kveðja hann at gjǫf Grímnis.
I recite the water of the mind-fjord [BREAST] of the promoter of the noise of Hildr <valkyrie> [(lit. ‘noise-promoter of Hildr’) BATTLE > = Óðinn > POEM] for the glad-hearted Óláfr; I want to summon him to the gift of Grímnir <= Óðinn> [POEM].
readings
[4] ‑fjarðar: so all others, ‑njarðar R
notes
[4] geðfjarðar ‘of the mind-fjord [BREAST]’: Unlike the other mss, R has ‘geðniarþar’ here. In an attempt to retain the R reading, Faulkes (SnE 1998, II, 285) construes the following poetry-kenning: geð-Njarðar hildar lá ‘liquid of battle-Njǫrðr’s mind (i.e. breast)’. However, literally this kenning translates as ‘the liquid of the mind-Njǫrðr of battle’; to be comprehensible the kenning would need to be rearranged as lá geð(s) Njarðar hildar, which results in an unacceptable word order, because the cpd geð-Njarðar ‘mind-Njǫrðr’ is split and geð- exchanged for the gen. hildar ‘of the battle’. Wisén (1886-9, 19-20) argues that geðfjǫrðr cannot be a kenning for ‘breast’ because base-words in kennings construed according to this pattern always denote a country or a landscape; hence he emends to geðjarðar ‘of the mind-earth’. Fjǫrðr can denote both the watery area of a fjord and the surrounding areas, however (cf. Firðir ‘Fjordane’, a district in Norway).
kennings
- geðfjarðar — of the mind-fjord [BREAST]
- lô geðfjarðar Hildar hjaldrgegnis; — the water of the mind-fjord of the promoter of the noise of Hildr <valkyrie> [POEM]
grammar
case: gen.