Note to Anon Bjark 4III
[6] fagrbyrði Grana ‘Grani’s <horse’s> fair burden [GOLD]’: Like the kennings of l. 4 and sts 5/5 and 6/5 and 6/6, this kenning alludes to the legend of the Niflungar. In l. 4, reference is made to Fáfnir, who killed his father and guarded the family’s fabulous gold-hoard, before he was killed in turn by the hero Sigurðr; here the allusion is to Sigurðr’s horse, Grani, who carried the gold back from Gnitaheiðr, where Fáfnir’s killing took place; cf. farmi Grana ‘Grani’s burden’ Þblǫnd Sigdr 2/4. SnSt Ht 41/4 (þungfarmr Grana ‘the heavy burden of Grani’) and 41/6 (reiðmálmr Gnitaheiðar ‘the riding-metal of Gnitaheiðr’) use kennings referring to both Grani and Gnitaheiðr in the same stanza; and cf. st. 5/5 and Note for another parallel. This kenning type is discussed in Meissner 228.
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.
- Internal references
- Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 41’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1150.
- Vivian Busch (ed.) 2017, ‘Þorvaldr blǫnduskáld, Sigurðardrápa 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 488.