Note to Anon (Ragn) 4VIII (Ragn 34)
[7] heiða harðmeldri Hveðnu ‘the gleaming hard flour of Hveðna <giantess> [GOLD]’: An allusion to the myth of the mill of Fróði; see SnE 1998, I, 51-8, cf. SnE 2007, 21 (SnSt Ht 43III). The present ed. follows Kock (NN §1467 and Skald) in retaining the ms. readings and assuming that -meldri is an acceptable acc. pl. form of meldr ‘flour, meal’. The fact that meldr is recorded elsewhere with gen. sg. ‑rar as well as ‑rs would suggest that an acc. pl. meldri (characteristic of i-stems) or meldra (characteristic of ‑a stems, and also mentioned by Kock) would both be possible, though pl. forms of meldr do not appear to be recorded (Fritzner, ONP: meldr; cf. ANG §358. 2). Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) avoids the problem by emending to m. acc. sg. heiðan harðmeldr (hveðnu), and treating hveðna as a common noun meaning ‘giantess’, cf. the next Note.
References
- Bibliography
- Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
- Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- 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.
- Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
- ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
- SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
- SnE 2007 = Snorri Sturluson. 2007. Edda: Háttatal. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
- Internal references
- Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 43’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1152.