Cite as: Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from Laufás Edda 6’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 643.

This fragment (Anon (LaufE) 6) is transmitted in the Y redaction of LaufE (mss 2368ˣ (main ms.) and 743ˣ), where it is written as one half-stanza along with Eskál Vell 7/5-6^I (as ll. 3-4), which is rendered in 2368ˣ as Braktogner hio Bogna | Barg uþyrmer varga. The scribes of the LaufE mss clearly believed that Vell 7/5-6^I belonged to the present stanza, but it is impossible to make any sense of the two couplets together. It could well be that they were originally cited separately, and that the kenning bogna brak-Rǫgnir ‘the Rǫgnir <= Óðinn> of the crash of bows [(lit. ‘crash-Rǫgnir of bows’) BATTLE > WARRIOR]’ was given as another illustration of kennings for ‘warrior’ with base-words from Old Norse myth. All four lines (Anon (LaufE) 6 and Vell 7/5-6^I) were copied in RE 1665(Hh3) from a ms. of the LaufE Y redaction. The RE 1665 redaction has no independent value and has not been considered here. The fragment is not edited in Skj or Skald and it is not possible to establish a tentative date for the couplet on the basis of metre and diction.

Ok orðvísa Ásu járnraddar svá kvaddi. Ok orðvísa Ásu járnraddar svá kvaddi. Ok kvaddi orðvísa Ásu járnraddar svá.

text prose order   And greeted {the word-wise Æsir {of the iron-voice}} [BATTLE > WARRIORS] thus.

context: The couplet is given as an example of kennings for ‘man’ in which the base-word is Æsir (LaufE 1979, 371): kiender eru menn so, ad kalla Asar sem hier er giortt ‘men are paraphrased in such a way as to call them Æsir, as is done here’.

notes: The couplet is too fragmentary to allow for a definite interpretation, and the present edn only attempts to make syntactic sense of the two lines that have been preserved. There is clearly a play on the words orðvísa ‘word-wise’ (l. 1), járnraddar ‘of the iron-voice’ (l. 2) and kvaddi ‘greeted’ (l. 2), but the interpretation of the couplet given here remains tentative.

texts: ‹LaufE 100 (371)›

editions: Skj Not in Skj;  SnE 1848-87, II, 628, III, 191, LaufE 1979, 371.

sources

AM 743 4°x (743x)	86v, 17 - 86v, 18	(LaufE)
GKS 2368 4°x (2368x)	113, 2 - 113, 2	(LaufE)