[2] Gríklands ‘of Greece’: Probably referring to Byzantium. On the terms Gríkland, lit. ‘Greek-land’, and Gríkir ‘Greeks’ in skaldic verse see Jesch (2001a, 100). For the few early God-kennings involving a geographical determinant, see Meissner 378; Arn Hardr 17/3II vǫrðr Girkja ok Garða ‘guardian of the Greeks and of Garðar’ is the closest parallel. Ms. 61 offers the alternative reading that ‘the guardian of the heavenly kingdom [defends] Greece’.
References
- Bibliography
- 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.
- Jesch, Judith. 2001a. Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age: The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse. Woodbridge: Boydell.
- Internal references
- Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson, Haraldsdrápa 17’ 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. 279-80.