Note to Þjóð Haustl 16III
[1] of barmi Baldrs ‘the brother of Baldr [= Þórr]’: Baldr was Þórr’s half-brother; Óðinn was the father of both gods, but Þórr’s mother was Jǫrð (see Note to st. 15/7), while Baldr’s was Óðinn’s wife Frigg (SnE 2005, 45-8; Vsp 53). Barmi is a poetic word for brother, and means lit. ‘child nourished at the same breast’, untrue in this case. Cf. Bragi Rdr 3/8 of barmar Erps ‘the brothers of Erpr’, also used of half-brothers. Of is here the pleonastic particle (LP: 1. of C), sometimes found in early poetry with nouns of kinship or close friendship; in Haustl there are instances of this usage in of rúni Þórs ‘confidant of Þórr [= Loki]’ st. 8/5, of rúna trolls trjónu ‘friend of the troll of the muzzle [= Mjǫllnir > = Þórr]’ st. 17/7 and here; cf. Kuhn (1929a) and Fidjestøl (1989b).
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.
- Kuhn, Hans (1899). 1929a. Das Füllwort of-um im Altwestnordischen: Eine Untersuchung zur Geschichte der germanischen Präfixe: Ein Beitrag zur altgermanischen Metrik. Ergänzungsheft zur Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung auf dem Gebiet der indogermanischen Sprachen 8. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
- SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
- Fidjestøl, Bjarne. 1989b. ‘Ekspletivpartikkelen som dateringskriterium: Forsøk i filologisk statistikk’. In Eithun et al. 1989, 46-64. Trans. with additions as ‘The Expletive Particle’ in Fidjestøl 1999, 207-30.
- Internal references
- 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 16 April 2024)
- Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Bragi inn gamli Boddason, Ragnarsdrápa 3’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 31.
- Not published: do not cite ()
- Elena Gurevich 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Þórs heiti’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 758. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3186> (accessed 16 April 2024)