Note to Þjóð Haustl 12III
[6] Reginn leikblaðs fjaðrar ‘the Reginn <legendary smith> of the play-blade of the feather [WING > GIANT = Þjazi]’: An unusual kenning, dependent for its meaning on the details of the underlying myth. Reginn has been treated here as the pers. n. of the legendary and evil smith, foster-father of Sigurðr and brother to Fáfnir (and also a dwarf-name, see Note to Þul Dverga 6/4). As such, Reginn is an appropriate base-word for a kenning for the giant Þjazi. Leikblað fjaðrar ‘play-blade of the feather’ is without parallel as a kenning-type, but must refer to the beating of the eagle’s wings in flight. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B; 1933, 1-2) transposes leik- from blað to reginn on the ground that ‘Reginn of the wing’ is not an appropriate kenning for a giant and construes ern leikreginn blaðs fjaðrar ‘the swift play-Reginn of the blade of the feather’. Marold (1983, 167) argues that, if leik- is understood as a verbal addition to the wing-kenning, it is not irregular in terms of kenning-type.
References
- Bibliography
- Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
- 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.
- Internal references
- Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Dverga heiti 6’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 704.