Note to HlǫðH Lv 2VIII (Heiðr 94)
[13-14] því inu mæta hrísi, er heitir Myrkviðr ‘that excellent forest, which is called Myrkviðr’: Ms. 2845’s reading, meira ‘great’ in place of mæta ‘excellent’, is assumed by most eds to be an error for mæra ‘renowned’; cf. Akv 5/7-8 (NK 241) hrís þat iþ mœra, | er meðr Myrcvið kalla ‘that renowned forest, which men call Myrkviðr’. Hrís usually means ‘brushwood’, but its sense is extended here and in the Akv instance (cf. LP: hrís). Myrkviðr is lit. ‘dark forest’ and can be both a specific p. n. and a generic term, used to refer to various border forests (Eggers 2002, 460-1) or forested areas; cf. Eskál Vell 26/3I and Note. Though 2845 and 203ˣ agree on the pl. Myrkviðir heita ‘are called Myrkviðir’, the sg. is more likely in terms of sense and accords with instances of the p. n. elsewhere in the corpus, and is necessary to agree with the sg. l. 13.
References
- Bibliography
- 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.
- NK = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. I: Text. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
- Eggers, Martin. 2002. ‘Myrkviðr’. In RGA, 20, 460-1.
- Internal references
- Not published: do not cite ()
- Edith Marold (ed.) 2012, ‘Einarr skálaglamm Helgason, Vellekla 26’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 315.