Note to Ormr Woman 6III
[1, 4] Fríðr funa fjarðar ‘the Fríðr <goddess> of the fire of the fjord [GOLD > WOMAN]’: The goddess-name Fríðr is not noted in SnE but has five attestations in kennings for ‘woman’ (Meissner 405; cf. LP: Fríðr). The first two elements in this kenning Fríðr funa ‘the Fríðr of fire’, prominently placed at the end of l. 1 and separated from the remaining kenning element fjarðar in line 4, could be interpreted as alluding by way of an antonym to the name Snæfríðr (‘snow-Fríðr’). The poet’s dedicatee in the frame would thus be contrasted via paronomasia with the female protagonist in the inset story. For skaldic treatment of fire and snow as antonyms see Poole (1982, 129-30). For contrastive naming via antonyms cf. Ísodd bjarta ‘Isolt the bright’ and Ísodd svarta ‘Isolt the black’ in Tristrams saga.
References
- Bibliography
- 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.
- 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.
- Poole, Russell. 1982. ‘Ormr Steinþórsson and the Snjófríðardrápa’. ANF 97, 122-37.
- Internal references
- Edith Marold 2017, ‘Snorra Edda (Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál)’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].