Note to Eil Þdr 2^III

[5] gjarðvani*ðr ‘the belt-familiar one [= Þórr]’: Calling Þórr ‘belt-familiar’ refers to his attribute megingjǫrð ‘strength-belt’ mentioned in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 14). According to Snorri’s version of the myth, Þórr did not have his strength-belt with him, but received a substitute from Gríðr. This edn follows a suggestion by Kock (NN §444; adopted by Genzmer 1934, 71 and Reichardt 1948, 337). None of the ms. readings can be construed as Old Norse words. Ms. R’s ‘giarðvenioðr’ (choosen by Davidson 1983, 570, 572) does not work because ‑venjuðr cannot be derived from the weak verb venja ‘accustom’, because this verb belongs to the first conjugation (venja, vanði, vanðr). At best, venjuðr could be an agent noun derived from an unattested verb of the second conjugation (*venja, ‑aða, venjaðr; cf. Jón Þorkelsson 1890, 3-4). A derivation of an agent noun venjuðr ‘frequenter’ from the abstract noun venja ‘custom, habit’, which Faulkes (SnE 1998, II, 285) proposes, has no parallels (cf. Krahe and Meid 1969, 157-9). Mss W and Tˣ offer the form -vendi, which can only be a late, weakly inflected p. p. of venja. Vendr appears instead of vandr in the later rímur (ANG §512 Anm. 2), but a weakly inflected p. p. should not be expected in the present poem. Jón Þorkelsson’s (1890, 3-4) emendation garðvǫnoðr ‘wall-breaker’ (of the giants), Finnur Jónsson’s (1900b, 377) garðvitjuðr ‘courtyard visitor’ and likewise Faulkes’s garðvenjuðr ‘enclosure frequenter’ (SnE 1998, II, 285) require determinants consisting of a giant’s name, which, in Finnur Jónsson’s case, leads to a highly complicated word order.

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. ANG = Noreen, Adolf. 1923. Altnordische Grammatik I: Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer. 1st edn. 1884. 5th unrev. edn. 1970. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
4. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
5. Davidson, Daphne L. 1983. ‘Earl Hákon and his Poets’. D. Phil. thesis. Oxford.
6. Krahe, Hans and Wolfgang Meid, eds. 1969. Germanische Sprachwissenschaft III: Wortbildungslehre. 7th edn. Berlin: de Gruyter.
7. Jón Þorkelsson [J. Thorkelsson]. 1890. ‘Bemærkninger til enkelte vers i Snorra Edda’. ANF 6, 1-13.
8. Reichardt, Konstantin. 1948. ‘Die Thórsdrápa des Eilífr Goðrúnarson: Textinterpretation’. PMLA 63, 329-91.
9. Genzmer, Felix. 1934. ‘Die ersten Gesätze der Thorsdrapa’. In [n. a.]. 1934. Studia Germanica tillägnade Ernst Albin Kock den 6 december 1934. Lund: Gleerup; Copenhagen: Levin & Munksgaard, 1934, 59-73.
10. Internal references
11. (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál’ 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=112> (accessed 26 April 2024)