Note to Refr Þorst 3^III

[3-4] til hermðarspjalla heinvandils ‘on the anger-words of the whetstone-Vandill [SWORD > BATTLE]’: The helmingr consists of two independent clauses, ‘the gold-diminisher [GENEROUS MAN] [I] heeded Þorsteinn’ and the intercalary ‘I am faithful to the bush of the roller-wolf [SHIP > SEAFARER]’, but it is difficult to decide where the prepositional phrase til hermðarspjalla heinvandils belongs. All previous eds (Skj; Skald; SnE 1998) place it in the intercalary clause, although their interpretations have differed. Skj B translates the prepositional phrase as med hensyn til at fortælle om den forbitrede kamp ‘with regard to telling about the bitter fight’. Finnur Jónsson seems to have connected heinvandils and hermðar to form a battle-kenning and translated spjalla (gen. pl. of spjǫll) as at fortælle ‘to telling …’ (lit. ‘to tell’). In LP: hermðarspjǫll, however, he takes hermðarspjǫll heinvandils as a battle-kenning: sværdets vrede ord, kamp ‘the furious words of the sword, battle’ (so also Faulkes in SnE 1998, II, 308). Placing the prepositional phrase til hermðarspjalla heinvandils in the clause beginning with emk hollr … is less attractive from the perspective of content, however, because hollr ‘faithful’ expresses more of a sense of general well-wishing and friendly inclination than being faithful (in battle). Therefore a connection with hlýddi Þórsteini ‘heeded Þorsteinn’ seems preferable. Here til can mean something like LP: til 3 om hensigt, formål, mål ‘concerning intention, aim, purpose’, and would convey that Þorsteinn advocated fighting or gave good advice for the fight.

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. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. 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.
5. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.