Note to ÚlfrU Húsdr 11^III

[3] of gildar Hropts ‘the companions of Hroptr <= Óðinn>’: Gildar is the pl. of either gildi m. ‘guild-brother, companion’ or gildir m. ‘one who lets sth. have its due’ (LP: gildir). (a) The present edn adopts gildar in the sense ‘companions’. It is difficult to decide whether the companions (or warriors) of Óðinn ought to be interpreted as Óðinn’s berserks or as einherjar (see Anon Eirm 1/5^I). Gildi ‘guild-brother, companion’ is admittedly a word that is attested late in written texts (see Fritzner: gildi, gildisbróðir etc.), but it does appear several times in Swedish runic inscriptions from the Viking Age (900-1050) (Ög 64, Bjälbo kyrka; Ög MÖLM 1960; 230, Törnevalla kyrka; U 379 Sigtuna). In these inscriptions the word always refers to a member of a group erecting a memorial stone for a deceased member of the same group. Gildi m. is a collective noun derived from gildi n. ‘guild’. The history of the word gildi ‘guild’, its semantic development and the social organisation called gildi are highly controversial (Rooth 1926, 74-98; Düwel 1987, 337-41; Anz 1998; Oexle 1998). It is likely that the guilds as trading organisations, along with the noun gildi m. ‘member of a gildi’ (cf. OE gegilda, gilda, OFris. gildo), were brought to Scandinavia from Germany and England at a relatively early time (C10th). Both words were likely current at Scandinavian trading centres and hence also known to Icelanders. (b) If gildar is interpreted as the pl. of gildir ‘one who lets sth. have its due’ (LP: gildir) as most previous scholars have done (Mogk 1880, 327-8; Skj B; Skald; Turville-Petre 1976, 70), the word requires a determinant; hence hjalmeldar (A) has been emended to hjalmelda ‘of helmet-fires’ (m. gen. pl.), to form the kenning of gildar hjalmelda Hropts ‘users of helmet-fires [SWORDS > WARRIORS] of Hroptr <= Óðinn>’.

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. 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.
5. Turville-Petre, Gabriel. 1976. Scaldic Poetry. Oxford: Clarendon.
6. 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.
7. Anz, Christoph. 1998. ‘Gilde’. In RGA, 12, 105-8.
8. Düwel, Klaus. 1987. ‘Handel und Verkehr der Wikingerzeit nach dem Zeugnis der Runeninschriften’. In Düwel et al. 1987, 313-57.
9. 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.
10. Oexle, Otto Gerhard. 1998. ‘Gilde’. In RGA, 12, 102-5.
11. Rooth, Erik. 1926. Altgermanische Wortstudien. Halle: Niemeyer.
12. Internal references
13. R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2012, ‘Anonymous Poems, Eiríksmál 1’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1006.
14. Not published: do not cite (Run^VI)