Note to Anon (LaufE) 3III
[All]: The basic sense of this half-stanza, conveyed by the clauses kømr grandi at mér ‘sends harm to me’ (ll. 1, 2) and drepr gamni við mér ‘destroys the pleasure for me’ (ll. 3, 4), is clear, but the meaning and syntactic function of the other nominal elements are less than obvious. Finnur Jónsson (LP: Samland) observes dryly that den slags kenninger … er en digters öjebliksleg ‘such kennings … are a poet’s extemporaneous play’. The kennings in this helmingr are in fact unprecedented. There can be no doubt that the word-play on the women-kennings and geographical locations was intended, and the kennings bear all the marks of having been created for the present prose context (see also the next stanza, Note to [All]).