Note to Ólhelg Lv 2^I

[5, 6] við valklifs ‘tree of the falcon-cliff [ARM > WOMAN]’: (a) Finnur Jónsson in Skj B combined the words bjǫrk bands valklifs so as to obtain a woman-kenning ‘birch of the band of the arm’, leaving við ‘tree’ as a half-kenning or uncorrected metaphor for ‘woman’ (presumably discounting the commentary in LaufE). But band ‘(head-)band’ is a standard determinant in woman-kennings in its own right (Meissner 416) without need for the extra determinant valklifs. (b) Kock’s simpler construction (NN §595) is therefore followed here, with valklifs ‘falcon-cliff [ARM]’ defining við ‘tree’ and bands ‘head-band’ defining bjǫrk ‘birch’. As to the first of these kennings, the determinant ‘arm’ or ‘hand’ occurs frequently (Meissner 420) but the base-word við(r) is exceptional. As noted in LaufE (see Context above, and cf. SnE 1998, I, 40), the norm is for m. tree names to serve as base-words in kennings for men and f. ones in kennings for women (for a clear exception see Anon (LaufE) 1/4^III). Viðr valklifs is thus one of three women-kennings in the stanza with tree-heiti as base-words (cf. lind ‘linden-tree’ l. 1, bjǫrk ‘birch’ l. 7), and participates in the dominant idea of the pity that the flourishing (algrœnan ‘fully green’, l. 8) girl may grow pale (fǫlna, l. 4) in winter (with another man?).

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. 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.
5. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
6. Internal references
7. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from Laufás Edda 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 637.
8. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Laufás Edda’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=10928> (accessed 26 April 2024)