Note to Refr Giz 3^III

[All]: The interpretation of the stanza offered here, which treats the Óðinn-heiti Valgautr as an onomastic play on the name Gizurr (see Note to l. 2 below) rather than as an invocation to Óðinn, places the stanza unambiguously alongside the other two stanzas from the poem about Gizurr. This differs from earlier interpretations, which regard the Óðinn-heiti merely as a form of address and consider the stanza to be an early lausavísa (Kreutzer 1977, 190-1), or treat it as separate from the other Gizurr stanzas (Guðmundur Þorláksson 1882, 101). Previous eds (Skj B; Skald; Faulkes in SnE 1998, II, 515) view the stanza as a kind of prayer of gratitude to Óðinn for the gift of poetic art. According to that interpretation, which follows the readings offered in ms. R, Óðinn is apostrophised in an extended, complicated kenning: framr Valgautr, tamr valdi salar brautar fannar hrannvala ‘outstanding Valgautr <= Óðinn>, accustomed to the rule of the hall of the path of the snowdrift of wave-horses [SHIPS > WAVES > SEA > SKY/HEAVEN]’. That kenning poses several difficulties. First of all, it is highly unusual for Óðinn, a heathen god, to be referred to as the ruler of heaven. This might be explained as a syncretistic blending of the heathen god with the Christian one, commonly praised as ‘God in heaven’, but the kenning pattern ‘hall of the sea’ for ‘sky/heaven’ is not attested elsewhere, unlike sky/heaven-kennings of the common type ‘house of the earth/mountains’ (see Meissner 104). Moreover, tamr ‘accustomed’ does not otherwise occur in constructions with the dat. (here, valdi n. dat. sg. ‘rule, power’); rather, it is either construed with the gen. or with the prepositions við or at in the sense ‘to’ (LP: tamr). Because the problematic readings valdi and tamr are found in ms. R only, the present edn has adopted the readings of the majority of the mss, valdr (so Tˣ, W, U; ms. B has valr) and ramar (so Tˣ, W, U, B). The rationale behind that choice is explained in the Notes below.

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. 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.
5. 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.
6. Kreutzer, Gert. 1977. Die Dichtungslehre der Skalden: Poetologische Terminologie und Autorenkommentare als Grundlage einer Gattungspoetik. 2nd edn. Hochschulschriften: Literaturwissenschaft 1. Meisenheim am Glan: Hain.
7. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
8. Guðmundur Þorláksson. 1882. Udsigt over de norsk-islandske skjalde fra 9de til 14de århundrede. SUGNL 8. Copenhagen: Møller.