Note to Eil Þdr 10^III

[1, 2] sinni ýta skaunar ‘the helper of the launchers of the shield [WARRIORS > LEADER = Þórr]’: Sinnir is an agent noun from the weak verb sinna ‘accompany, support sby’ (Fritzner: sinna 2). Ýta is understood here as the gen. pl. of ýtir, an agent noun from the weak verb ýta ‘push out, launch’, qualified by a term for ‘weapon’ to form a warrior-kenning (LP: ýtir); cf. Kock (NN §§453, 1832) and, with an opposing view, Reichardt (1948, 358). Skaun ‘shield’ is only attested as a simplex here and in the þulur (Þul Skjaldar 1/2); the gender (m. or f.) and the etymology are disputed. Earlier eds (Sveinbjörn Egilsson 1851, 8, 26; Finnur Jónsson 1900b, 387 and Skj B; Reichardt 1948, 358) combine skaunar with seil ‘strap, rope’ (l. 3). This reduces the Þórr-kenning to sinni ýta ‘helper of men’ (l. 1) in which ýta is the gen. pl. of ýtar ‘people’. The problems with this interpretation are seil, which must be combined with himin for metrical reasons (see Note to l. 3), and skaunar, which as the last word in an even line cannot be integrated into the prepositional phrase in l. 3 (NN §1832). Moreover, a kenning such as seilhiminn skaunar ‘the sky of the strap of the shield [SHIELD-STRAP > SHIELD]’ is irregular, since its determinant already makes use of the referent (‘shield’). Hence skaunar can only be accommodated in the Þórr-kenning of l. 1. Þórr-kennings referring to the god as the helper or supporter of people or warriors are rare (Meissner 254), and the kenning could equally well be a leader-kenning, applied to Þórr. See the Introduction above for warrior- or ruler-kennings referring to gods and divine beings in Þdr.

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
5. 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.
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. Finnur Jónsson. 1900b. ‘Þórsdrápa Eilífs Goðrúnarsonar’. Oversigt over det Kgl. Danske videnskabernes selskabs forhandlinger 1900, 369-410.
8. Reichardt, Konstantin. 1948. ‘Die Thórsdrápa des Eilífr Goðrúnarson: Textinterpretation’. PMLA 63, 329-91.
9. Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 1851. Tvö brot af Haustlaung og Þórsdrápa. Reykjavík: Prentað á kostnað skólasjóðsins.
10. Internal references
11. 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 25 April 2024)
12. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Skjaldar heiti 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 823.