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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Note to Steinarr Woman 1III

[1-2] mjúkstalls Synjar mens ‘of the soft place of the Syn <goddess> of the necklace [WOMAN]’: Mjúkstalls ‘of the soft place’ is a hap. leg. (a) In this edn Synjar mens is construed as a two-element woman-kenning of the familiar type ‘goddess of the necklace’ (Meissner 413; cf. Skj B and LP: men). The cpd mjúkstalls could be a periphrasis, perhaps euphemistic, for ‘bed’, with the kenning based on the gen. Synjar denoting its possessor. The noun stallr has a variety of senses deriving from a central meaning of ‘raised platform’ (cf. CVC: stallr; Fritzner: stallr 1; LP: stallr 1); the structures so designated, such as the altar and the step of a mast, are typically rigid, hence the first element of the cpd distinguishes this type of stallr from them. Beds that can be detected in archaeological investigations of medieval Icelandic dwellings are typically on raised platforms above floor-level (Arnheiður Sigurðardóttir 1970). For the use of the adj. mjúkr ‘soft’ in relation to ‘bed’ see Fritzner: mjúkr 1 and the ONP citations of mjúkr; for a male speaker contemplating a woman’s bed, cf. Hfr Lv 19V (Hallfr 22), Tindr Hákdr 1/1-4I and Þklypp Lv 1/1-4I. This interpretation removes the need to posit a superfluous kenning determinant in one or other of the two kennings in the stanza. The goddess-name Syn lit. ‘refusal’ may have been selected to suit a context where the woman is evidently denying the male speaker’s wishes. The characterisation of her as mildr ‘gracious’, a word collocated with mjúkr ‘soft’ here and elsewhere (ONP: mjúkr), is presumably ironic. (b) In SnE 1848-87, followed by Kock (NN §902 and Skald) and Faulkes (SnE 1998, II, 356), mjúkstalls (l. 2) is combined with Synjar mens ‘of the Syn of the necklace’ (l. 1) to produce a woman-kenning, Syn mjúkstalls mens ‘Syn <goddess> of the soft place of the necklace’. This ‘soft place’ would necessarily be the neck, since the noun men is not attested in the sense ‘ring’, ‘arm-ring’ but solely as ‘necklace-ring’ (LP: men). The solution ‘neck’ is indeed proposed by Faulkes (cf. his translation ‘necklace-stand’; Faulkes 1987, 115), but the woman-kenning that results (‘goddess of the neck’) is nowhere attested and the adj. mjúkr seems incongruous used of the neck. Solution as ‘arm’ (NN §902, following SnE 1848-87), has attracted greater favour from scholars, based on the large number of woman-kennings of the ‘goddess of the ring’ type, but in these the determinant must logically denote a generic ring or arm-ring (cf. Meissner 419-20), not a necklace. Perhaps with this objection tacitly in mind, Finnur Jónsson construes mjúkstalls (Skj B; LP: mjúkstallr) with the second kenning in the stanza (see Note to ll. 3, 4).

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. SnE 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
  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. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
  9. Faulkes, Anthony, trans. 1987. Snorri Sturluson. Edda. Everyman’s Library. London and Rutland, Vermont: J. M. Dent & Sons and Charles E. Tuttle Co., Inc. Rpt. with new chronology and synopsis 2005.
  10. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
  11. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
  12. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
  13. Arnheiður Sigurðardóttir. 1970. ‘Seng: Island’. KLNM 15, 130-1.
  14. Internal references
  15. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2022, ‘Hallfreðar saga 22 (Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld Óttarsson, Lausavísur 19)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 900.
  16. R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2012, ‘Þorkell klyppr Þórðarson, Lausavísa 1’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 269.
  17. Russell Poole (ed.) 2012, ‘Tindr Hallkelsson, Hákonardrápa 1’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 338.

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