[5, 7] hirtir manna ‘chastiser of men [RULER]’: The kenning may have been used here to denote the man’s high rank in society. Skald emends to hirtir meina, translated as beivrare av odåd ‘inciter of misdeeds’ (see NN §2858). Schottmann (1973, 128) suggests hirðir menja ‘keeper of necklaces [GENEROUS MAN]’, which forces the emendation of vartu ‘were you’ to varðu ‘did you become’. The kenning clearly refers to the man, and Finnur Jónsson takes it as such in Skj B (mænds styrer ‘ruler of men’), although in LP: hirtir he construes it as a kenning for God.
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.
- Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- 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.
- Schottmann, Hans. 1973. Die isländische Mariendichtung. Untersuchungen zur volkssprachigen Mariendichtung des Mittelalters. Münchner germanistische Beiträge 9. Munich: Fink.