Note to Refr Ferðv 5^III

[4] bjǫrn nauta Gusis skaut ‘the bear of the gifts of Gusir <legendary king> [ARROWS > = Ǫrvar-Oddr] shot’: (a) The present interpretation, which follows Marold (2006a), rests on the observation that skaut bjǫrn in l. 4 is written as two separate words in all mss except A. The subject of skaut ‘shot’ can only be bjǫrn ‘bear’, with the added determinant nauta Gusis ‘of the gifts of Gusir’, giving the straightforward clause bjǫrn nauta Gusis skaut ‘the bear of the gifts of Gusir shot’. An explanation for this somewhat cryptic statement is found in the Bjarmaland voyage episode of Ǫrvar-Odds saga (ch. 5, FSN II, 176-82): Oddr and his companions are attacked aboard their ship by giants who hurl rocks at them, creating large waves. Later, Oddr shoots from the inside of a bear decoy he has constructed by draping the skin of a large bear that they have killed over a post, so that it looks as though a bear were standing upright. In the beast’s mouth Oddr kindles a fire and shoots Gusir’s arrows out of it at a giantess who is threatening him and his companions. The difference between the stanza and the episode in Ǫrvar-Odds saga is that in the stanza a bear is shooting, while in the saga the hero stands behind the bear decoy and shoots. It is therefore tempting to assume that the stanza is based on a version of the legend or a related episode in which the hero actually takes on the shape of a bear, which was interpreted later as the use of a decoy. On shape-changing and on the bear-motif in Ǫrvar-Odds saga, see Marold (2006a, 229-33). The two previous interpretations of this line, offered by Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) and Kock (Skald; NN §785), are both unsatisfactory. (b) Finnur Jónsson (Skj B; LP: Gusi) construes the whole line as a complicated and over-determined kenning for ‘ship’ (skautbjǫrn nauta Gusis ‘sail-bear of the gifts of Gusir <legendary king>’), his explanation being that one of the Finnish King Gusi’s arrows mentioned in Ketils saga hœngs (Ket ch. 3) is named Flaug and flaug is also a term for the pennant flown by ships (LP: 2. flaug; see also Þul Skipa 6/7). According to Finnur, nauta Gusis ‘of the gifts of Gusir’ is an ofljóst construction for flaug ‘pennant’ that functions as the determinant of skautbjǫrn ‘sail-bear’. Kock (NN §785) rightly labels this interpretation ‘misapplied ingenuity’ (Reichardt 1930, 249 is equally dismissive). (c) Kock (NN §785) splits l. 4 by combining skautbjǫrn with á fyllar (l. 1), and he construes the prepositional phrase á skautbjǫrn fyllar ‘on the sail-bear of the sea [SHIP]’ (on this kenning, see Note to l. 1). He then connects nauta Gusis and vetrliði skíða (l. 3), construing a second ship-kenning, vetrliði skíða nauta Gusis ‘bear of the planks of the gifts of Gusir [ARROWS > SHIELD > SHIP]’. That kenning must also be rejected, because skíð is not attested as a base-word of shield-kennings, and ‘shield’ does not appear in Meissner’s list of ship-kenning determinants (Meissner 214-16).

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. FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
7. 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.
8. Reichardt, Konstantin. 1930. ‘Beiträge zur Skaldenforschung’. ANF 46, 32-62, 199-258.
9. Marold, Edith. 2006a. ‘Die Pfeile des Finnenkönigs’. In Hornscheidt et al. 2006, 220-36.
10. Internal references
11. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ǫrvar-Odds saga’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 804. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=35> (accessed 26 April 2024)
12. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ketils saga hœngs’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 548. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=71> (accessed 26 April 2024)
13. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Skipa 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. 870.