[4] miðgarði Fáfnis ‘Fáfnir’s <dragon’s> land [GOLD]’: The reference is to Fáfnir, son of Hreiðmarr, who turned into a dragon and guarded a gold-hoard by lying upon it, hence gold can be called Fáfnir’s land (see Note to l. 6 below and cf. Meissner 239, SnE 1998, I, 45-7 and Þorm Lv 10/2I). In this kenning miðgarðr, normally the name for the world of humans in Old Norse myth, provides a base-word belonging to the semantic field ‘land’.
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.
- SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
- Internal references
- R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2012, ‘Þormóðr Kolbrúnarskáld, Lausavísur 10’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 823.