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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Note to Hhárf Snædr 1I

[5] greip Dvalins ‘the grasp of Dvalinn <dwarf> [MOUTH]’: This unparalleled kenning can only be tentatively interpreted. The helmingr envisages poetry as mead pouring from a receptacle of some sort, and contextually ‘mouth’ is most likely. Ólafur Halldórsson (1969b, 152) suggests that the kenning could allude to the mythological motif of giants (though not dwarfs) measuring out gold by mouthfulls (SnE 1998, I, 3); the connection with dwarfs rather than giants could reflect a now-lost myth or possibly confusion on the part of the poet. An earlier explanation (Skj B; NN §133) that the reference is literally to Dvalinn’s hand, as having snatched away the poetic mead, does not fit the context.

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. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
  5. Ólafur Halldórsson. 1969b. ‘Snjófríðardrápa’. In Jakob Benediktsson 1969, 147-59. Rpt. with additions in Ólafur Halldórsson 1990.

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