Note to Gestumbl Heiðr 8^VIII (Heiðr 55)

[3]: The same line is found in Hávm 160/3 (NK 140), where the dwarf Þjóðreyrir is said to sing fyr Dellings durom. The pers. n. is also that of a dwarf in Fj 34/5. In Vafþr 25/1-2, however, Dellingr (lit. ‘the shining one’) is said to be the father of Dagr ‘day’. Snorri gives further information in Gylf (SnE 2005, 13), which says that Dellingr var … Ása ættir ‘was of the family of the Æsir’, and was married to Jǫrð (lit. ‘Earth’), mother of Dagr, the latter of whom var … ljóss ok fagr eptir faðerni sínu ‘was light and fair according to his father’s nature’. Dellingr also occurs as a dwarf-name in the þulur, where it might represent a misinterpretation of the Hávm stanza: see further Note to Þul Dverga 3/7^III. The H-redaction mss read döglings here; this derives from the name of another Dagr, not the personification of day but a legendary king, son of Hálfdan gamli ‘the Old’ and, according to Skm (SnE 1998, I, 103), er Daglingar eru frá komnir ‘from whom the Daglingar [Dǫglingar] are descended’. Dǫglingr is frequently used as a poetic word for ‘king’, and it could be that receivers of the H redaction understood the line thus, perhaps in reference to Heiðrekr himself. This reading is given some extra credence by the witness of 203ˣ, which has independent value here; however, 203ˣ reads Dellings in every other instance of this line, and the agreement of 2845 and R715ˣ, and the correspondence with Hávm 160/3, point decisively to the conclusion that Dellings is the correct reading. It is favoured by almost all eds (including Edd. Min., which otherwise often prefers the text of the H redaction). The sense, however, remains somewhat obscure. Finnur Jónsson (LP) and Tolkien (Heiðr 1960, 34 n. 1) surmised that the phrase must mean ‘at sunrise’, apparently based on the Hávm instance, a suggested interpretation of which is that the dwarf is singing to warn his people of the impending sunrise which would turn them to stone (idem). ‘Dwarfs turn to stone at sunrise’ is a folklore motif (Thompson 1955-8, F451.3.2.1), but for discussion and problematisation of the assumption see Acker (2002, 219). A spatial rather than temporal location seems more likely, perhaps in front of rocks or mountains (i.e. úti ‘outside’, as in l. 2), the traditional dwelling-places of dwarfs (Simek 1993, 68). The meaning of the line is not crucial to the interpretation of the riddle.

References

1. Bibliography
2. 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.
3. NK = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. I: Text. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
4. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
5. SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
6. Edd. Min. = Heusler, Andreas and Wilhelm Ranisch, eds. 1903. Eddica Minora: Dichtungen eddischer Art aus den Fornaldarsögur und anderen Prosawerken. Dortmund: Ruhfus. Rpt. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
7. Simek, Rudolf. 1993. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. Trans. Angela Hall. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
8. Acker, Paul. 2002. ‘Dwarf-lore in Alvíssmál’. In Acker et al. 2002, 213-28.
9. Heiðr 1960 = Tolkien, Christopher, ed. and trans. 1960. Saga Heiðreks konungs ins vitra / The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise. Nelson Icelandic Texts. London etc.: Nelson.
10. Thompson, Stith. 1955-8. Motif-Index of Folk Literature: A Classification of Narrative Elements in Folk-Tales, Ballads, Myths, Fables, Mediæval Romances, Exempla, Fabliaux, Jest-Books, and Local Legends. 6 vols. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Rev. and enlarged edn. Originally published 1932-6.
11. Internal references
12. (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 25 April 2024)
13. (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning’ 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=113> (accessed 25 April 2024)
14. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Dverga heiti 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. 697.
15. Not published: do not cite ()
16. Not published: do not cite ()
17. Not published: do not cite ()