Note to Anon Brúðv 21VII
[1-2] björg borða ‘the deliverance of tables’: Jón Helgason suggested the emendation björk ‘birch’ which often occurs as a base-word in kennings for a woman, to give the kenning björk borða ‘birch of embroidery’. Jón Sigurðsson suggested braut ‘path’ in the margin of 399a-bˣ, which Jón Helgason rejected on the grounds that braut does not occur as a base-word in woman-kennings. The scribe of 2166ˣ adopted braut in the main text, mentioning the original reading in the margin. The reading of 721, 1032ˣ and 399a-bˣ, björg ‘help, salvation, deliverance’, is an unusual base-word in a kenning for a woman, if the determinant is borði ‘embroidery’ m., unless borði stands for those who produce embroidery, viz. women. As the kenning must refer to the Virgin Mary, and she is often referred to by means of base-words like hjálp ‘help’ and miskunn ‘mercy’, it is possible that björg borða is a kenning like hjálp fljóða ‘help of women’ (Anon Mv II 17/8). However, if borða is gen. pl. of borð ‘table’ n., Mary could be called ‘the deliverance of tables’, the one that provides food for households, though this kenning appears to be unprecedented. This interpretation is supported by the adj. nýtust ‘most beneficial, kind, bountiful’. However, whichever sense of borða is adopted, the kenning is still unusual and the text may be corrupt.