Cookies on our website

We use cookies on this website, mainly to provide a secure browsing experience but also to collect statistics on how the website is used. You can find out more about the cookies we set, the information we store and how we use it on the cookies page.

Continue

skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

Menu Search

Note to Steinarr Woman 1III

[3, 4] stoð straumtungls ‘support of the stream-star [GOLD > WOMAN]’: This solution, supplied by Skald (and cf. SnE 1998, I, 192), yields a standard type of woman-kenning (cf. Meissner 413-14). Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) instead combines straumtungls with mjúkstalls ‘of the soft place’ (l. 2), interpreting as ‘soft underlay of the stream-star [GOLD > ARM]’ (LP: mjúkstallr), which in turn he combines with the retained ms. reading veltistoð, explained as a base-word signifying bevægende støtte ‘moving support’. The result would be a woman-kenning. As noted above, woman-kennings with ‘arm’ as the determinant are firmly attested (Meissner 419-20) and Finnur avoids the illogicality of associating a necklace with the arm. On the other hand, his proposal has the weakness of retaining the hypermetrical line with faulty alliteration and unnecessarily complicating the word order. Kock (NN §2314) argues additionally that Finnur’s explanation of velti- is difficult to reconcile with the normal senses of velta ‘roll, roll over, set rolling’ (CVC, Fritzner: velta).

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
  8. 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.
  9. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.

Close

Log in

This service is only available to members of the relevant projects, and to purchasers of the skaldic volumes published by Brepols.
This service uses cookies. By logging in you agree to the use of cookies on your browser.

Close