Note to Anon (LaufE) 3III
[3] Sólmarkar ‘of Sólmǫrk’: Lit. ‘of the sun-forest, of the sun-land’. This is a kenning for ‘sky/heaven’, which makes little sense in the context (see LP: sólmǫrk). In the present edn the cpd has been taken as a f. pers. n. (cf. Sólborg, ESk Lv 11/2 and Note to Anon Mhkv 11/7), although it could well be a f. nickname or even an onomastic pun on a woman’s name. The construction gamni Sólmarkar ‘the pleasure of Sólmǫrk’ is then syntactically parallel to grandi svanna ‘the harm of women’ (ll. 1, 2).
References
- Bibliography
- LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
- Internal references
- Roberta Frank (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Poems, Málsháttakvæði 11’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1225.
- Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Einarr Skúlason, Lausavísur 11’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 174.