Note to Hfr Hákdr 6III
[All]: The syntax is problematic, and judging by the variant readings, also confused medieval scribes. Mss R, Tˣ, W and B are defective in l. 4, leaving láta eina ‘let alone’ without an object. Ms. U’s reading systr ‘sisters’ (emended slightly to systur acc. sg.) makes good this lack, yielding the kenning systur Auðs ‘sister of Auðr [= Jǫrð]’. Skm’s prose also leads us to expect such a kenning, as this group of citations is introduced as follows (SnE 1998, I, 35): Hvernig skal jǫrð kenna? Kalla Ymis hold ok … systir Auðs ok Dags ‘How should one refer to “earth”? Call it Ymir’s flesh and … sister of Auðr and Dagr’. However, this leaves the man-kenning base-word fleygjanda ‘flinger’ in l. 1 without a determinant. Various solutions have been proposed (see Notes to ll. 1, 4 and l. 4 below). The one tentatively advanced in the Text is to treat auðs/Auðs as an instance of apo koinou, a single word functioning as the determinant of both of the helmingr’s kennings.
References
- Bibliography
- SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
- Internal references
- (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál’ 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=112> (accessed 24 April 2024)