Note to Þjóð Haustl 9III
[1] hrœri sagna ‘the leader of the troops [= Loki]’: Lit. ‘mover of the troops’. Sagna is probably gen. pl. of sǫgn ‘group, troop, crew’ rather than saga ‘story’ (so Faulkes, SnE 1998, II, 411), though it has been so interpreted by some (e.g. Holtsmark 1949, 12, 28-9, followed by Marold 1983, 161) as ‘the mover, i.e. initiator, of stories’, a kenning possibly alluding to Loki’s habit of lying or to his role in initiating mythic actions. The general context requires the kenning to refer to Loki; assuming this is correct, it is interesting that he, rather than Óðinn, should be described as the leader of the trio of gods; cf. the kenning segjǫndum sagna ‘the commanders of the troops’, referring to the gods as a group, in st. 2/1.
References
- Bibliography
- SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
- 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.
- Holtsmark, Anne. 1949. ‘Myten om Idun og Tjatse i Tjodolvs Haustlǫng’. ANF 64, 1-73.