Note to Þul Kvenna I 1III
[7] hæll (m.) ‘widow’: In poetry this is the word for ‘woman’ in general. In SnE there is a distinction between hæll, ‘a woman whose husband has been slain’ (Skm, SnE 1998, I, 107: hæll er sú kona kǫlluð er búandi hennar er veginn), and ekkja, the term for a woman whose husband has died of an illness (Ekkja heitir sú er búandi hennar varð sóttdauðr). Hæll m. is merely a poetic word and rare, however, whereas ekkja f. is the commonly used term for ‘widow’ in both prose and poetry. According to de Vries (AEW: hæll 3), it is likely that hæll got its poetic meaning ‘widow’ from a skaldic word-play on homonyms, as in Egill Skallagrímsson’s last stanza (Egill Lv 48V (Eg 132)). Since ekkja is a word for both ‘widow’ and ‘heel’, the meaning ‘widow’ may have been transferred to hæll ‘heel’ in analogy with the former term. See also Note to Anon Stríðk l. 8.
References
- Bibliography
- AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
- SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
- Internal references
- Edith Marold 2017, ‘Snorra Edda (Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál)’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].
- Not published: do not cite (EgillV)
- (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál’ 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=112> (accessed 19 April 2024)
- Margaret Clunies Ross 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Stríðkeravísur’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 628. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1042> (accessed 19 April 2024)
- Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2022, ‘Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar 132 (Egill Skallagrímsson, Lausavísur 48)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 389.