Note to Þjóð Haustl 16^III

[6, 7, 8] vátt vagna myrkbeins reinar Haka ‘the knower of killer whales of the dark bone of the land of Haki <sea-king> [SEA > ROCK > GIANTS > GIANT = Hrungnir]’: There has been considerable debate among scholars about the most plausible arrangement of the elements of this extended giant-kenning. In this kenning, vagna ‘of killer whales’ is strictly speaking redundant, as váttr myrkbeins reinar Haka ‘knower of the dark bone of the land of Haki <sea-king>’ could be understood on its own as a giant-kenning. The interpretation adopted here, originally proposed by Reichardt (1928, 102), follows the word order of the helmingr most closely. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) offers the slightly more convoluted vátt myrkbeins reinar vagna Haka ‘the knower of the dark bone of the land of the carriages of Haki <sea-king> [SHIPS > SEA > ROCK > GIANT = Hrungnir]’. Vátt lit. ‘witness’, ‘knower’, possibly ‘frequenter’ (l. 8) is the direct object of frák ‘I have heard’ (l. 5). Vagna (or vǫgna, as the spelling of the mss seems to suggest, cf. ANG §81) may either be gen. pl. of vǫgn ‘killer whale, orca’, as understood here (cf. st. 4/5 ving-Rǫgnir vagna ‘the swinging Rǫgnir <= Óðinn> of killer whales [GIANT = Þjazi]’), or gen. pl. of vagn ‘carriage, chariot’. Marold (1983, 171 n. 415) offers a thorough refutation of the readings of Kock (NN §§226, 1813, 2505, 3097A and Skald) and various other scholars.

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. ANG = Noreen, Adolf. 1923. Altnordische Grammatik I: Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer. 1st edn. 1884. 5th unrev. edn. 1970. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
6. 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.
7. Reichardt, Konstantin. 1928. Studien zu den Skalden des 9. und 10. Jahrhunderts. Palaestra 159. Leipzig: Mayer & Müller.