[4] kunnum eldviðum ‘of famous sword-trees [WARRIORS]’: Finnur Jónsson in Skj B emends kunnum to gunnar ‘of battle’ to produce eldviðum gunnar ‘men’, presumably with viðum ‘trees’ as base-word and eld- gunnar ‘fire of battle [SWORD]’ as determinant. However, eldr ‘fire’ is among the sword-heiti in Þul Sverða 8/2III, and can mean ‘sword’ in warrior- and battle-kennings, though the examples are mainly in later poetry (see Meissner 76, who suggests that eldr in these expressions is a synonym for brandr m. ‘flame, sword’). Emendation is therefore unnecessary (so also Krijn 1931, 54).
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.
- Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
- Krijn, S. A. 1931. ‘Halfred Vandraedaskald’. Neophilologus 16, 46-55, 121-31.
- Internal references
- Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Sverða heiti 8’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 804.