[4] bliksólar ‘of the gleam-sun [SHIELD]’: This is an incomplete kenning for ‘shield’. Finnur Jónsson emends to borðsólar ‘of the gunwale-sun’ (LP: bliksól) or barðsólar ‘of the prow-sun’ (Skj B), i.e. ‘shield’. According to Kock (NN §3102), blik means ‘gold’, and he takes the cpd in the sense ‘the golden sun’ i.e. ‘the shield’. ‘Gold’ never serves as a determinant in kennings for ‘shield’, however (see Meissner 171-7). Faulkes (SnE 1998, I, 212) suggests that Garmi bliksólar ‘the Garmr of the shine of the sun’ could have been caused by scribal confusion with Mánagarmr (‘moon-hound’), the wolf that will eventually swallow the moon. It is possible that blik ‘gleam’, which frequently serves as a base-word in kennings for ‘sword’ (see Meissner 150), is used in an absolute meaning ‘sword’ (bliksól ‘sword-sun’ i.e. ‘shield’).
References
- Bibliography
- Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
- NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
- LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
- SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.