Note to Anon Sól 56^VII

[6] brunni Baugreyris ‘from the well of Baugreyrir’: Falk (1914a, 36) and Björn M. Ólsen (1915, 53-4) connect the well with the well of Mímir in Vsp 28, but for Falk, as also for Paasche (1914b, 61 and 1948, 189-90), the well is the vitae fontes aquarum ‘the fountains of the waters of life’ of Rev. VII.17 and XXII.1, the fons misericordiae ‘the fountain of mercy’ of HómÍsl (1872, 76). Here the ring (baugr) symbolises God’s mercy. Njörður Njarðvík (1991, 87) compares the heavenly brunnr lifanda vatns ‘the well of living water’ in Dugg (Cahill 1983, 85-7). 166bˣ’s baugreirs is understood here as the name Baugreyrir; 167b 6ˣ shows a similar form as do c. 18 other mss. Baugreyrir ‘ring-stirrer’, perhaps ‘generous lord’, parallels Óðre(y)rir ‘mind-stirrer’ in Hávm 140 and SnE (1998, I, 3-4), the name of the vat where the mead of poetry is stored. Alternatively, the original form may have been Baugrerir (cf. LP: Óðrørir). Thus the poet makes allusion to poetry, like the mead of Baugreyrir’s well, as a potent drink, which, though pagan in origin, is capable of being used for Christian purposes. Papp15ˣ’s equally plausible Baugrein, and 738ˣ’s Baugreyin, probably to be normalised to Baugreginn ‘ring-god, divine power’ (LP: baugreginn), is shared by 23 other mss and is adopted by Skj B, Skald, and most other eds. It may or may not be a pers. n.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. 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.
5. Björn Magnússon Ólsen, ed. 1915a. Sólarljóð: gefin út með skíringum og athugasemdum. Safn til sögu Íslands og íslenzkra bókmenta 5.1. Reykjavík: Prentsmiðja Gutenberg.
6. Cahill, Peter, ed. and trans. 1983. Duggals leiðsla. RSÁM A 25. Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar.
7. Falk, Hjalmar, ed. 1914a. Sólarljóð. Videnskapsselskapets skrifter II. Hist.-filos. kl. 7. 2 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Dybwad.
8. Njörður P. Njarðvik, ed. 1991. Sólarljóð. Útgáfa og umfjöllun. Íslensk Rit 10. Reykjavík: Bókmenntafræðistofnun Háskóla Íslands og Menningarsjóður.
9. Dugg = Duggals leiðsla (see Cahill 1983)
10. HómÍsl = Íslensk hómilíubók (The Icelandic Homily Book).
11. Paasche, Fredrik. 1914. Kristendom og kvad: En studie i norrøn middelalder. Christiania (Oslo): Aschehoug. Rpt. in Paasche 1948, 29-212.
12. Internal references
13. Edith Marold 2017, ‘Snorra Edda (Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál)’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].
14. Not published: do not cite ()
15. Not published: do not cite ()