Cite as: Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, Lausavísur 5’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 169-71.

Varp ór þrætu þorpi Þórr smiðbelgja stórra hvapteldingum hǫldnum hafra kjǫts at jǫtni.

Hljóðgreipum tók húða hrøkkviskafls af afli glaðr við galdra smiðju Geirrøðr síu þeiri.

{Þórr stórra smiðbelgja} varp {hvapteldingum} ór {þorpi þrætu} at {hǫldnum jǫtni kjǫts hafra}. {Glaðr Geirrøðr hrøkkviskafls húða} tók {hljóðgreipum} við {þeiri síu {smiðju galdra}} af afli.

{The Þórr <god> of huge forge-bellows} [SMITH] flung {jaw-lightnings} [INSULTS] from {his quarrel hamlet} [MOUTH] at {the proud giant of goats’ flesh} [TANNER]. {The cheerful Geirrøðr <giant> of the curving scraper of hides} [TANNER] took in {with his sound-grabbers} [EARS] {that molten substance {of the smithy of spells}} [MOUTH > INSULTS], powerfully.

Mss: Mork(15v) (Mork); H(65r), Hr(47va) (H-Hr); Flat(207ra) (Flat); 593b(29v)

Readings: [1] þrætu: om. H    [2] ‑belgja stórra: ‑belgjum stórum Hr    [3] hvapt‑: hvatt Mork, H, Hr, ‘huafft’ Flat, hross 593b;    ‑eldingum: ‘elldligum’ Hr;    hǫldnum: ‘holdvm’ 593b    [5] Hljóðgreipum: ‘hliodsgnipvm’ 593b;    tók: greip Hr;    húða: húðar Flat, 593b    [6] hrøkkvi‑: ‘hrauki’ Flat;    ‑skafls: ‘skalfs’ H, ‘kafls’ Flat;    af: so Flat, ór Mork, H, Hr, at 593b    [7] við: í Hr;    smiðju: smíði 593b    [8] síu: so H, Hr, 593b, ‘siǫ’ Mork, sinn Flat;    þeiri: ‘þ[...]e’ H, ‘þeirre’ or ‘þeirra’ 593b

Editions: Skj: Þjóðolfr Arnórsson, 4. Lausavísur 14: AI, 380, BI, 350, Skald I, 176, NN §1140; ÍF 9, 267-8 (Snegl ch. 3), Mork 1928-32, 235, Andersson and Gade 2000, 244, 478 (MH); Fms 6, 361-2 (HSig ch. 101), Fms 12, 160; Flat 1860-8, III, 417 (MH).

Context: In a ch. about King Haraldr’s dealings with Sneglu-Halli (SnH) and other skalds, the story relates how Þjóðólfr, walking along the street with the king, overhears a row between a tanner (or cobbler, sútari in Flat) and a blacksmith. Þjóðólfr is at first affronted by the king’s demand that he compose about this, but when the king adds that to make the task more challenging he should present the antagonists as the giant Geirrøðr and the god Þórr, he recites this st.; the king is duly impressed by it and immediately commissions Lv 6. (The two sts are in reverse order in Flat and 593b.)

Notes: [All]: If the st. was truly extemporized, its royal patron was right to be impressed. The complex and innovative imagery creates parallels and oppositions between the quarrelling tanner and smith, while casting them as the antagonists in the mythical story of the god Þórr’s encounter with the giant Geirrøðr. The smith figures, appropriately, as Þórr, who in the Geirrøðr story lacks his famous hammer but has a pair of iron gloves. The story is told, cryptically, in Eilífr Goðrúnarson’s Þórsdrápa (Eil Þdr^III), which is preserved, with prose paraphrase, in SnE (1998, I, 24-30). At its centre, Geirrøðr (supposedly in sport) throws a lump of molten iron at Þórr, who throws it back at, and through, the giant, and this is transformed into a metaphor for speech in Þjóðólfr’s skit. There is a good deal of vocabulary in common between Þjóðólfr’s Lv 5-6 and Þdr, e.g. tangar ‘tongs’ (Þdr 16/6^III, with slight emendation, and Lv 6/8), afli ‘strength/forge’ (Þdr 16/7^III and Lv 5/6), síu ‘molten substance’ (Þdr 18/4^III and Lv 6/8) and greip ‘grabber’ (Þdr 17/8^III and Lv 5/5); Greip is also the name of one of Geirrøðr’s daughters. — [3] hvapt- ‘jaw-’: This is based on the Flat spelling ‘huaftt’, and with eldingum ‘lightnings’ it forms a witty kenning for speech, or specifically insults, and this is the solution preferred in most edns (Skj B with slight emendation to gen. sg. hvápts). The majority reading hvatt ‘keen(ly), swift(ly)’, and 593b’s hross ‘horse, mare’ do not fit the context. — [3] hǫldnum ‘proud’: (a) The adjectival p. p. could be m. dat. sg. qualifying jǫtni ‘giant’, as assumed here and, e.g., in Skj B and Andersson and Gade 2000, 244. (b) Alternatively, it could be m. dat. pl. qualifying hvapteldingum ‘jaw-lightnings’. In this case it could have a literal sense, ‘held’, alluding to the myth in which Þórr grabs the lumps of molten metal that the giant flings at him (see Note to [All] above) or else a figurative sense ‘(insults to be) stored up’ (LP: halda B. 5) or ‘controlled, over which he had power’ (Turville-Petre 1976, 101, citing Kock and Meissner 1931, II, 64). ÍF 9 construes hǫldnum thus but does not translate it. — [6] hrøkkviskafls ‘of the curving scraper’: Another time-honoured editorial solution. Skafl m. normally means ‘(snow-)drift’ or ‘high wave or sea’, yet the symmetry of the st. seems to demand a term which will combine with húða ‘of skins’ to produce some attribute of the tanner which will be determinant to a kenning for ‘tanner’ with the giant-name Geirrøðr as base-word, and the translation ‘scraper’, highlighting a major aspect of the tanner’s craft, seems justified on the basis of skafa f. ‘scraper’ and the verb skafa ‘scrape’ as well as skaf(-dreki) ‘scraping dragon’ in Lv 6/3. — [6] af afli ‘powerfully’: Afl n. ‘strength’ and afl m. ‘forge’ are both possible here, and doubtless a pun is intended, but the primary reading may be Flat’s af afli (cf. at afli in 593b) as assumed here, since it is not clear how ór afli ‘from the forge’ in Mork, H and Hr would fit. This reading is adopted ÍF 9, though without being translated. Finnur Jónsson, acknowledging Björn Magnússon Ólsen, adopted it in the additions and corrections (Tillæg og rettelser) to Skj BI (683), taking ór afli galdra smiðju together, hence presumably ‘out of the forge of the smithy of spells’; this Kock describes as nonsense (huller-om-buller-fantasi, NN §1140).