[2] gunnvargs ‘of the battle-wolf’: This is not a kenning but a cpd in which the first element, gunn- ‘battle’, serves to foreground vargr ‘wolf’ as a hostile creature (NN §446; Reichardt 1948, 345; Kiil 1956, 105). Previous eds either separate gunn- from ‑vargr and connect it with a different word (Sveinbjörn Egilsson 1851, 7; Finnur Jónsson 1900b, 379; Skj B; both assuming tmesis), or they interpret gunnvargr as a sword-kenning (Guðmundur Finnbogason 1924, 175) based on a flawed comparison with the sword-kenning hjalm-Fenrir ‘helmet-Fenrir <wolf>’ (ÞBrún Lv 3/3V (Heið 8)). The latter kenning is formed according to the pattern ‘destructive creature of sth.’, however, and although vargr ‘wolf’ is used as a base-word in sword-kennings, it occurs only when ben- or und- ‘wound’ is the determinant.
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.
- NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- Finnur Jónsson. 1900b. ‘Þórsdrápa Eilífs Goðrúnarsonar’. Oversigt over det Kgl. Danske videnskabernes selskabs forhandlinger 1900, 369-410.
- Kiil, Vilhelm. 1956. ‘Eilífr Goðrúnarson’s Þórsdrápa’. ANF 71, 89-167.
- Reichardt, Konstantin. 1948. ‘Die Thórsdrápa des Eilífr Goðrúnarson: Textinterpretation’. PMLA 63, 329-91.
- Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 1851. Tvö brot af Haustlaung og Þórsdrápa. Reykjavík: Prentað á kostnað skólasjóðsins.
- Guðmundur Finnbogason. 1924. ‘Um Þórsdrápu. Nokkrar athugasemdir’. Skírnir, 172-81.
- Internal references
- Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2022, ‘Heiðarvíga saga 7 (Þorbjǫrn Brúnason, Lausavísur 3)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 992.
- Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2022, ‘Heiðarvíga saga 8 (Þorbjǫrn Brúnason, Lausavísur 4)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 994.