Note to ÚlfrU Húsdr 6III
[4] leggs reyrar ‘of the bone of the reed [STONE]’: This kenning is presumably constructed according to the pattern ‘bone of the water’ or ‘bone of the land’, but it cannot be established whether reyrar ‘of the reed’ represents ‘water’ or ‘land’ here (Meissner 89-90). That reyrr may be used in the sense ‘land’ is suggested by snake-kennings with base-word þvengr ‘strap’ where reyr- ‘reed’ and sef- ‘rush’ occur as determinants in variation with terms for ‘land’ (Mogk 1880, 326; Meissner 115). (b) Frank (1978, 111) gives a completely different explanation of leggs reyrar as ‘the shaft of the twisted cord’, deriving reyrr from the weak verb reyra ‘tie, fasten, wind around’. The entire giant-kenning would then mean ‘tester (or enemy) of the fishing-line’ and would be well suited to the context because it would relate to the giant’s severing the line from which Miðgarðsormr was hanging. However, neither leggr nor reyrr is attested in the meanings assumed by Frank.
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.
- Frank, Roberta. 1978. Old Norse Court Poetry: The Dróttkvætt Stanza. Islandica 42. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
- Mogk, Eugen. 1880. ‘Untersuchungen ueber die Gylfaginning. II: Die Quellen der Gylfaginning und ihr Verhältnis zu den sog. Eddaliedern. Anhang Ulfr Uggason’. BGDSL 7, 203-334.