Note to Bragi Frag 1^III

[2] djúprǫðul ǫðla ‘a deep disk of inherited land [ISLAND = Sjælland]’: (a) Understood here as a kenning for Gylfi’s patrimony of Swedish land, which Gefjun and her oxen plough away from him to form the island of Sjælland. Djúprǫðull ‘deep disk’ is a hap. leg., the word rǫðull normally denoting the sun or other round heavenly body. Ǫðli, with the sense ‘patrimony, origin’ occurs in two eddic poems, Lok 43/1 and Hárb 9/3. (b) The cpd may also be construed as a f. adj., in apposition to Gefjun, meaning ‘deeply calculating’ or ‘deeply wise’, ‑rǫðull then being related to ráða ‘advise’ (cf. Genzmer 1932; Marold 1983, 83-4). (c) Finnur Jónsson, adopting F’s reading -rǫðuls (gen. sg.), takes glǫð djúprǫðuls to mean glad ved guldet ‘glad at the gold’ (Skj B construing djúprǫðuls as a kenning ‘sun of the deep’ for gold) or ‘shining with gold’ (Finnur Jónsson 1930-1, 251). (d) Another interpretation, proposed by Holtsmark (1944) and followed by Frank (1978, 108-10), argued for ‘wheel’ as the sense of ‑rǫðull, and construed [renniraukn] djúprǫðuls óðla ‘[the swift-moving draught animals] of the deep wheel of the earth [PLOUGH]’ to refer to the deeply penetrating wheel of the heavy plough (as contrasted with the arðr, a simpler, more superficial type of plough), supposedly a technological innovation introduced into Scandinavia c. C9th. Archaeological evidence for such a theory is equivocal at best (cf. Steensberg 1936; Fowler 2002, 182-204, especially 203-4). Ǫðla, gen. sg. of ǫðli, øðli (later eðli) ‘inherited land’, is sometimes emended to the unattested *óðla ‘quickly’ (so Skj B) or the mss’ readings are interpreted as *auðla ‘fruitfully’ (so Skald) or *œðla, understood as lønn for erotisk oppflamming ‘reward for erotic arousal’ (Kiil 1965, 68), the latter alluding to Gefjun’s supposed role as a ritual prostitute in her encounter with Gylfi.

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. Frank, Roberta. 1978. Old Norse Court Poetry: The Dróttkvætt Stanza. Islandica 42. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
5. Marold, Edith. 1983. Kenningkunst: Ein Beitrag zu einer Poetik der Skaldendichtung. Quellen und Forschungen zur Sprach- und Kulturgeschichte der germanischen Völker, new ser. 80. Berlin: de Gruyter.
6. Finnur Jónsson. 1930-1. ‘Brage skjald’. APS 5, 237-86.
7. Fowler, Peter. 2002. Farming in the First Millennium AD: British Agriculture between Julius Caesar and William the Conqueror. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
8. Genzmer, Felix. 1932. ‘Die Gefjonstrophe’. BGDSL 56, 414-36.
9. Holtsmark, Anne. 1944. ‘Gevjons plog’. MM, 169-79. Rpt. in Holtsmark 1956b, 162-76.
10. Kiil, Vilhelm. 1965. ‘Gevjonmyten og Ragnarsdråpa’. MM, 63-70.
11. Steensberg, Axel. 1936. ‘North-West European Plough-Types of Prehistoric Times and the Middle Ages’. Acta Archaeologica 7, 244-80.
12. Internal references
13. Not published: do not cite ()
14. Not published: do not cite ()