Note to HSt Frag 3III
[1, 2-3] Víðblinda galtar salts svalteigar rafkastandi ‘the thrower of the amber of the salty, cool meadow of the boar of Víðblindi <giant> [(lit. ‘amber-thrower of the salty, cool meadow of the boar of Víðblindi’) WHALE > SEA > GOLD > GENEROUS MAN]’: This is an extended kenning, in which the poet refers to himself as ‘generous man’. The basic pattern is ‘thrower of gold’; in this case ‘gold’ is called ‘amber of the sea’, ‘sea’ is referred to as ‘the salty, cool meadow of the whale’, and ‘whale’ is in turn referred to as ‘boar of the giant (Víðblindi)’ (see Note to l. 2 below). The use of ‘amber’ as a base word in the gold-kenning here can be explained by the shining colour of amber (LP: rǫf). In salts svalteigar ‘the salty, cool meadow’, the noun salts is taken as an adjectival gen. The interpretation of the stanza follows Skj B.
References
- Bibliography
- Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
- 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.