Note to FriðÞ Lv 7VIII (Frið 7)
[6] svanflaugar ‘swan-flights [WAVES]’: This cpd is a hap. leg. of uncertain meaning and status. It is not certain that it is a kenning, but cf. Frið 8/4 í brekku svana ‘in the hillside of swans [WAVE]’, whose status as a kenning is clear. With Larsson (Frið 1901, 19 n.) the cpd is understood here to mean ‘waves’, comparing the white crests of the towering waves to the wings of flying swans. The use of the abstract noun flaug ‘flight’ is unusual, however; Larsson (Frið 1901, loc. cit.) suggests the cpd may have an adjectival sense. Kock (NN §1473) proposes that flaug might have the sense ‘place from where something flies’, pointing to periphrases for the sea like OE swanrād ‘swan-path’, but there is no evidence to support this hypothesis. Edith Marold (pers. comm.) has suggested a minor emendation to svan*laugar ‘swan-baths [SEA]’, which would still produce an unusual kenning, but one that is less unusual than svanflaugar. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) emends to svanteigar ‘swan-fields [SEA]’.
References
- Bibliography
- Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
- NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- Frið 1901 = Larsson, Ludvig, ed. 1901. Friðþjófs saga ins frœkna. ASB 9. Halle: Niemeyer.
- Internal references
- Not published: do not cite ()
- Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Friðþjófs saga ins frœkna 8 (Friðþjófr Þorsteinsson, Lausavísur 8)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 203.