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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Note to ÚlfrU Húsdr 6III

[5, 6] Víðgymnir vaðs Vimrar ‘the Víðgymnir <giant> of the ford of Vimur <river> [= Þórr]’: This kenning alludes to an episode described in Eil Þdr sts 5-8 and in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 24-5). On his way to meet the giant Geirrøðr, Þórr must wade across a mighty river. Þdr 8 does not call it the Vimur, rather, the name comes from a stanza of an otherwise unknown eddic poem cited in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 25). The prose narrative and the stanza might also explain why the poet uses a giant’s name as the base-word in this Þórr-kenning. The river swells up until it reaches Þórr’s shoulders, at which point he addresses the river (loc. cit.): Vaxattu nú, Vimur, | … veiztu ef þú vex, | at þá vex mér ásmegin | jafnhátt upp sem himinn ‘Do not grow now, Vimur, … you know that if you grow, then the power of an Áss will rise in me just as high as the sky’. At the same time the kenning, in which Þórr appears as the ‘giant’ of the river, corresponds to the kenning pattern ‘hostile creature/enemy of sth./sby’. There is no satisfactory explanation for the name Víðgymnir, but the prose context of the Húsdr stanza indicates it is a giant’s name (SnE 1998, I, 17): Hér er hann kallaðr jǫtunn Vimrar vaðs ‘Here he is called the giant of the ford of the Vimur’. Sveinbjörn Egilsson (LP (1860): Viðgymnir) explains the word as the appellative transgressor ‘one who crosses’; cf. also SnE 1848-87, I, 258; LP: Víðgymnir.

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. LP (1860) = Sveinbjörn Egilsson, ed. 1860. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis. Copenhagen: Societas Regia antiquariorum septentrionalium.
  5. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
  6. Internal references
  7. (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=112> (accessed 19 March 2024)
  8. Edith Marold with the assistance of Vivian Busch, Jana Krüger, Ann-Dörte Kyas and Katharina Seidel, translated from German by John Foulks 2017, ‘ Eilífr Goðrúnarson, Þórsdrápa’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 68. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1170> (accessed 19 March 2024)
  9. Edith Marold with the assistance of Vivian Busch, Jana Krüger, Ann-Dörte Kyas and Katharina Seidel, translated from German by John Foulks 2017, ‘ Úlfr Uggason, Húsdrápa’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 402. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1492> (accessed 19 March 2024)
  10. Edith Marold (ed.) 2017, ‘Eilífr Goðrúnarson, Þórsdrápa 8’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 91.

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