Note to Anon Krm 25VIII
[3] bekki föður Baldrs ‘the benches of the father of Baldr <god> [= Óðinn]’: According to Gylf (SnE 2005, 23), Baldr is the second son of Óðinn after Þórr, and Óðinn’s oldest legitimate son. The story of his popularity among the gods, his tragic killing as a result of Loki’s treachery, and the fruitless attempts of the gods to bring him back from the realm of the dead, told most fully in Gylf (SnE 2005, 45-9), is well known. The only other occurrence of ‘the father of Baldr’ as a kenning for Óðinn, however, appears to be in Anon (Styrb) 1/6I, a stanza spoken by a finngálkn ‘monster’ in Styrb. The word bekki, acc. pl. of bekkr m. ‘bench’, refers here metonymically to Valhǫll (see also Notes to sts 4/4 and 28/9), where the speaker of Krm, as he indicates here, expects to enjoy after death the hospitality of Óðinn at a bench-lined banqueting table.
References
- Bibliography
- SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
- Internal references
- (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Styrbjarnar þáttr Svíakappa’ 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. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=5> (accessed 26 April 2024)
- (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning’ 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=113> (accessed 26 April 2024)
- Rory McTurk 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Krákumál’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 706. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1020> (accessed 26 April 2024)