Note to Anon Gát 2^III

[5] járn ór afli ‘iron from the forge’: Perhaps helsingr ‘barnacle goose’ (Þul Fugla 1/4). ‘Iron from the forge’ is a sword (see LP: járn), and helsingr is listed among the sword-heiti in Þul Sverða 8/7 (see Note there), although is not found as a term for ‘sword’ elsewhere in the corpus. The word possibly derives from háls ‘neck’ (AEW: helsingr), and in her edn of the þulur in this volume Gurevich translates the sword-heiti ‘long-neck’, a fitting description for both a sword and a goose. Helsingr seems also to be the solution to Gát 3/4, although via a different play on words. Trani ‘crane’ and ǫrn ‘eagle’ also appear among the sword-heiti, Þul Sverða 6/4 and 8/3 respectively, without other attested usages as sword-terms in poetry. See also Notes to Þul Orma 2/4 and Þul Sverða 7/8. In 743ˣ Árni Magnússon has added ‘teistikofa’ above the line; this (spelled ‘þeistekofa’) is also added as a gloss above the line in 1562ˣ. This solution is printed in SnE 1848 without comment. ON þeisti (ModIcel. teista) is the guillemot (Cepphus grylle); cf. Þul Fugla 4/4 and Note. ON kofa is a young puffin. It is unclear, however, how this solution is reached from the clue. In Skj B Finnur Jónsson does not propose a solution, stating merely usikkert ‘uncertain’; in LP: afl he suggests hávella ‘long-tailed duck’ (Clangula hiemalis), arriving there via vella ‘to boil, bubble’ (cf. Note to Gát 3/9). The LaufE mss ÍBR 35 4°ˣ and Lbs 1116 4°ˣ suggest geirfugl ‘great auk’, literally ‘spear-bird’, so named for the shape of its beak. This seems to be closer to what is required, but the mss date from the first half of the C19th, making it difficult to claim that it was the original solution; however the word geirfugl and the variant geirfalki are both attested from the C14th.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. SnE 1848 = Sveinbjörn Egilsson, ed. 1848. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar, eða Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál og Háttatal. Reykjavík: Prentsmiðja landsins.
4. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
5. 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.
6. Internal references
7. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Poems, Gátur 3’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 635.
8. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Sverða heiti 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. 800.
9. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Sverða heiti 7’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 802.
10. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Sverða heiti 8’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 804.
11. 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.
12. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Fugla heiti 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 952.
13. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Fugla heiti 4’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 955.
14. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Laufás Edda’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=10928> (accessed 25 April 2024)