Note to Eil Þdr 12^III

[4] harðgleypnis ‘of the harsh swallower’: This edn emends the mss’ gleipnis or ‘gleifnir’ to gleypnis, an agent noun from the weak verb gleypa ‘swallow, devour’. Harðgleypnir ‘the harsh swallower’ is an appropriate base-word in a sword-kenning formed according to the pattern that characterises swords as harmful, aggressive animals (Meissner 155; cf. LP: harðgleipnir; NN §2495C). Most eds connect gleipnis with Gleipnir, the name of one of the three fetters that bind the wolf Fenrir in Gylf (SnE 2005, 25, 28). Finnur Jónsson (1900b, 391) incorporates the word into a shield-kenning, borð harðgleipnis hlífar ‘plank of the hard fetter of the shield [SHIELD-STRAP > SHIELD]’, which contains a term for ‘shield’ twice, once as the referent of the entire kenning and once in hlífar ‘of the shield’ (in LP: harðgleipnir, however, he abandons this interpretation). Kock (NN §456, followed by Reichardt 1948, 364) combines Gleipnir, interpreted as ‘fetter’, with barða ‘of ships’ in a shield-kenning because, according to him, shields hanging from the gunwale formed a chain around a ship.

References

1. Bibliography
2. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. 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.
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. SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
6. Finnur Jónsson. 1900b. ‘Þórsdrápa Eilífs Goðrúnarsonar’. Oversigt over det Kgl. Danske videnskabernes selskabs forhandlinger 1900, 369-410.
7. Reichardt, Konstantin. 1948. ‘Die Thórsdrápa des Eilífr Goðrúnarson: Textinterpretation’. PMLA 63, 329-91.
8. Internal references
9. (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=113> (accessed 24 April 2024)