Note to Eil Þdr 20^III

[3, 4] salvanið Synjar arinbrautar ‘the hall-visitor of the Syn <goddess> of the hearth-stone-path [MOUNTAINS > GIANTESS > GIANT]’: This extended giant-kenning is formed according to the pattern ‘visitor of the giantess’. The base-word salvaniðr lit. means ‘one accustomed to the hall’. ‘Giantess’ is rendered according to the familiar pattern ‘goddess of the mountain’ in which ‘mountain’ is paraphrased by the kenning ‘path (i.e. whereabouts) of the hearth-stone’. Hearths were made of stone slabs; hence arinn denotes ‘stone’. The emendation of ‘brꜹti’ (R) to ‑brautar gen. is necessary to provide a determinant ‘stone’ or ‘mountain’ for Syn, a goddess (cf. Reichardt 1948, 386-7). Earlier solutions are not satisfactory, either because they employ tmesis extensively (cf. Finnur Jónsson 1900b, 399; Skj B: arin-Synjar salvanið-bauti ‘the killer of the visitor of stone-Syn’) or because of multiple emendations and incoherent syntax. Among the latter are Kock’s (NN §467) of Synjar salvaniðs Arinbauta ‘over the Syn <goddess> of the one who is used to the hall of Arinbauti (the hearth-hammerer)’ and Kiil’s (1956, 160) arinbauti laut of sigr salvaniðs Synjar ‘Arinbauti [stone-putter = Geirrøðr] crashed through the victory of the one who is used to the hall of Syn [= Þórr]’.

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. Finnur Jónsson. 1900b. ‘Þórsdrápa Eilífs Goðrúnarsonar’. Oversigt over det Kgl. Danske videnskabernes selskabs forhandlinger 1900, 369-410.
5. Reichardt, Konstantin. 1948. ‘Die Thórsdrápa des Eilífr Goðrúnarson: Textinterpretation’. PMLA 63, 329-91.