[2] hringr brestr at gjǫf ‘the ring breaks as bride-payment’: Hringr ‘ring’ can also mean ‘sword’ (the ring at the sword-hilt, pars pro toto for ‘sword’, see LP: 2. hringr and Þul Sverða 7/7), meaning that the sword shatters in battle. If hringr is taken in the meaning ‘vagina’, however, the clause could have a third level of meaning (for other sexual innuendos in connection with Hildr and ‘ring’, see Clunies Ross 1973b).
References
- Bibliography
- 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.
- Clunies Ross, Margaret. 1973b. ‘Hildr’s Ring: A Problem in the Ragnarsdrápa, Strophes 8-12’. MS 6, 75-92.
- Internal references
- Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Sverða heiti 7’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 802.