Note to Þjóð Haustl 13III
[5-6] á minni iljabrú Finns fjalla ‘on my footsole-bridge of the Finnr <Saami> of the mountains [GIANT = Hrungnir > SHIELD]’: A tvíkent kenning for a shield, which depends on the audience’s knowledge of the myth of Þórr’s single combat with the giant Hrungnir, narrated in sts 14-20 of Haustl. According to Skm (SnE 1998, I, 21; cf. st. 17), it was Þórr’s companion Þjálfi who persuaded Hrungnir to stand on his stone shield, because, he claimed, Þórr was going to attack the giant from underground. For this reason, a shield can be referred to in a kenning as the bridge of this giant’s footsoles; cf. LP: Hrungnir, Bragi Rdr 1/3, 4 and Note. It is possible that Þjóðólfr deliberately introduced this kenning here to foreshadow the subject of the second section of Haustl, which recounts exactly this myth.
References
- Bibliography
- 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.
- SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
- Internal references
- (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=112> (accessed 19 April 2024)
- Margaret Clunies Ross 2017, ‘ Þjóðólfr ór Hvini, Haustlǫng’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 431. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1438> (accessed 19 April 2024)
- Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Bragi inn gamli Boddason, Ragnarsdrápa 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 28.