Note to Eil Þdr 21^III

[5, 6] Rygir Lista vallátrs ‘the Rygir of the Lista of the falcon-lair [(lit. ‘falcon-Rygir of the lair of Lista’) ROCK > MOUNTAINS > GIANTS]’: The edn follows Finnur Jónsson (1900b, 401; Skj B; so also Reichardt 1948, 391). The kenning is a variation of the pattern ‘people of the mountains’ for ‘giants’, where ‘people’ is represented by ‘Rygir’ (people from the district of Rogaland) and ‘mountains’ by the kenning ‘Lista (southernmost part of Norway) of the falcon-lair’. It is unusual to combine two place names in one kenning, but the determinant kenning can be explained by the pattern ‘land of the rocks’, Lista replacing ‘land’. Kock (NN §2254) takes lista as gen. pl. of list ‘art’ and combines it with liðfǫstum; hence ‘powerful by the support of art’. However, list ‘art’ neither suits the character of Þórr nor the fight against the giants. Liðfǫstum ‘support-strong’ can be explained by reference to the situation: Þórr is fighting together with Þjálfi, as the stef (sts 11 and 22) confirms. To achieve a giant-kenning, it is necessary to change the order of the two determinants: látr val-Rygir (‘lair of the falcon-Rygir’) > vallátr(s) Rygir (‘Rygir of the falcon-lair’) (cf. Meissner 44-6) and emend látr (all mss) to látrs.

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