Note to Þorm Lv 24I
[8] hríðar Dags ‘of the blizzard of Dagr <legendary king> [BATTLE]’: Finnur Jónsson (1932-3) and Gordon (1957, 239) take this to be a reference to Dagr Hringsson (see Lv 22), as this is apparently how Snorri understood it, for twice he refers to the fiercest part of the battle as Dagshríð (hríð being a phase in a battle), in the context of narrating Dagr’s manoeuvres (ÍF 27, 386, 389). This is implausible, for hríðar Dags would appear to be a normal heroic kenning, and Þormóðr can hardly mean that he was wounded in a shower of missiles launched by one of the leaders on the king’s (and his own) side. Von See (1977b, 467-71) shows that this misunderstanding of the helmingr was already common by Snorri’s day. ÍF 27, 391 n. accepts Snorri’s testimony about Dagshríð but, recognizing the improbability that the term could then have been used by Þormóðr, adopts the unlikely reading dals hríðar ‘bow’s blizzard’ from Kˣ (cf. dal- in Holm2).
References
- Bibliography
- ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
- Gordon, E. V. 1957. An Introduction to Old Norse. 2nd edn rev. A. R. Taylor. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- See, Klaus von. 1977b. ‘Skaldenstrophe und Sagaprosa: Ein Beitrag zum Problem der mündlichen Überlieferung in der altnordischen Literatur’. MS 10, 58-82. Rpt. in von See 1981a, 461-85.
- Finnur Jónsson. 1932-3. ‘Þórmóðr Kolbrúnarskald’. APS 7, 31-82.