Note to Bkrepp Magndr 10II
[8] véttrima ‘of hilts’: Véttrim must have been a part of the sword, and Falk (1914, 28-9) suggests that it could have been a metal plate on the sword-hilt. Vétt (n.) is an oval lid on a chest, and rim a pole, post, or the upper plank on a ship’s railing. LP: véttrim takes the first part of the cpd as vétt ‘weight’ (f.) and supplies the translation tynd stang, rim, til at løfte med ‘thin pole, rim, to lift [sth.] with’. According to that interpretation, véttrim was a part of the sword-blade close to the sword point, which makes little sense in the present kenning. See also ESk Geisl 47/4VII, in which naðr véttrima, translated as ‘the snake of sword-rings’, is a kenning for ‘sword’, which also refutes the LP interpretation.
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.
- Falk, Hjalmar, ed. 1914a. Sólarljóð. Videnskapsselskapets skrifter II. Hist.-filos. kl. 7. 2 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Dybwad.
- Internal references
- Martin Chase (ed.) 2007, ‘Einarr Skúlason, Geisli 47’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 45-6.