Note to ÚlfrU Húsdr 2^III

[7] kyndik áðr ‘I revealed [that] earlier’: Some scholars (Skj B; Schier 1976a, 581; Thorvaldsen 2003, 176; Cöllen 2007, 61-2) place áðr in the main clause of the second helmingr and take it to mean that Heimdallr had once owned the hafnýra (l. 6). Heizmann (2009, 520-1) translates áðr as dann aber ‘but then’ referring to NK II, 12. But the metre precludes this, as no sentence boundary may fall after the second metrical position in this Type A3 odd line, i.e. after ms. kynnik ‘I make known’ (Kuhn 1983, 151-3; Gade 1995a, 153, 161-3). Thus áðr must belong in the parenthetic clause, and this edn solves the difficulty posed by the mss’ pres. tense kynnik by emending to kyndik ‘I made known’ (1st pers. sg. pret. indic.). Kock (NN §1890, followed by de Vries 1933, 127) emends áðr to óð, which is problematic for semantic reasons. He translates kynnik óð … mærðar þôttum as diktkonst visar jag i drápans delar ‘I display the art of poetry in the parts of the drápa’. That interpretation is untenable, however, because óðr means ‘poem’, not ‘poetry’, and kynna ‘make known’, not ‘display’.

References

1. Bibliography
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3. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. Gade, Kari Ellen. 1995a. The Structure of Old Norse dróttkvætt Poetry. Islandica 49. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
5. Kuhn, Hans (1899). 1983. Das Dróttkvætt. Heidelberg: Winter.
6. Schier, Kurt. 1976a. ‘Húsdrápa 2: Heimdall, Loki und die Meerniere’. In Birkhan 1976, 577-88.
7. NK II = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1968. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. II: Kurzes Wörterbuch. Heidelberg: Winter.
8. Cöllen, Sebastian. 2007. ‘Der Ursprung des Feuers in nordgermanische Mythologie. Studien zu Húsdrápa 2’. ANF 122, 59-78.
9. Schier, Kurt. 1976b. ‘Die Húsdrápa von Úlfr Uggason und die bildliche Überlieferung altnordischer Mythen’. In Guðni Kolbeinsson et al. 1976, 425-43.
10. Thorvaldsen, Bernt Øyvind. 2003. ‘Kampen om den kommende verden’. Nordica Bergensia 29, 171-93.
11. Vries, Jan de. 1933. The Problem of Loki. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia.
12. Heizmann, Wilhelm. 2009. ‘Der Raub des Brísingamen, oder: Worum geht es in Húsdrápa 2?’. In Heizmann et al. 2009, 502-30.