Note to Anon Bjark 4III
[8] dúni Grafvitnis ‘Grafvitnir’s <snake’s> feather-bed [GOLD]’: Grafvitnir ‘grave-wolf’ (AEW: grafa) is a snake-heiti; cf. SnE 1998, I, 90, Grí 34/5 and Þul Orma 2/1 (see Note there). A very similar kenning, beð Grafvitnis ‘Grafvitnir’s bed’, is in ESk Øxfl 6/4. According to a notion common in both Old English and Old Norse poetry, serpents and dragons were in the habit of lying on hoards of gold, often concealed in mounds (cf. Beowulf ll. 2231b-2310 and Beowulf 2008, 238-9), hence in a large group of gold-kennings gold could be termed the bed or lair of a snake; cf. Meissner 237-41. Fáfnir’s legendary gold (see l. 4 above) served as a paradigmatic example of this thought-pattern.
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.
- AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
- Beowulf 2008 = Fulk, Robert D., Robert E. Bjork and John D. Niles, eds. 2008. Klaeber’s Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg. 4th rev. edn of Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, ed. Fr. Klaeber. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press.
- SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
- Internal references
- Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Orma heiti 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. 929.
- Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Einarr Skúlason, Øxarflokkr 6’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 146.
- Not published: do not cite ()
- Not published: do not cite ()