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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Note to Anon (TGT) 28III

[4] hálmmein ‘straw-harm [BLADE]’: Emendation is justified as W, the only witness here, frequently omits single letters which are otherwise preserved in A and B. Sveinbjörn Egilsson (SnE 1848-87, I, 332) suggested the emendation included here. The present interpretation is based on the use of a scythe or blade for cutting hay (cf. the Strøm whetstone (Run KJ50/2VI; RäF 110-13) aaskaþiaþuligi ‘may it harm the hay [but] lie [peacefully] in a fight’, referring to the blade sharpened by the stone). This produces the sense that although the woman lacks a blade, she is nevertheless dangerous. Although a large number of kennings for ‘fire’ follow a similar pattern, they all have a determinant referring to wood or something wooden (wood, tree, forest, hall, branch; cf. Meissner 100-1), rather than ‘straw’, as here. (b) Most eds nevertheless interpret hálmmein ‘straw-harm’ as a kenning for ‘fire’. In this reading, the sense would then be metaphorical: eldr, for example, is used elsewhere to refer to passionate feelings (ONP: eldr 17). Björn Magnússon Ólsen (TGT 1884, 214) suggests an ofljóst construction involving the referent ‘fire’: fire is also birti ‘brightness’ which in turn is homonymous with skírleikr, which can also mean ‘purity, chastity’, producing the sense that the woman is unchaste. Finnur Jónsson adopts this interpretation in LP: halmein). However, birti is not recorded with the sense ‘fire’ (rather, ‘brightness’; cf. LP, Fritzner, ONP); and it is not included in the þulur among heiti for ‘fire’ (Þul Elds).  (c) Kock (NN §1233B) also construes a kenning for ‘fire’ but emends to hallmeins ‘of the hall-harm [FIRE]’ by analogy with other kennings such as lífgalli hallar ‘life-harm of the hall [FIRE]’ (Sturl Hrafn 11/4II), but a cpd ‘hall-harm’ would be ON hallarmein (hypermetrical) rather than hallmein. He takes this with Njǫrun as a kenning for ‘woman’ (cf. Meissner 417) and translates: Lider än den blonda kvinnan … brist på ädla stenar, är hon farligt dyr i alla fall ‘Even if the blonde woman suffers a lack of precious stones, she is nonetheless dangerously expensive’. This reading requires two emendations, and Njǫrun steina is elsewhere attested in this metrical position as a kenning for ‘woman’ (TorfiV Lv 1/6V (Harð 1)).

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. TGT 1884 = Björn Magnússon Ólsen, ed. 1884. Den tredje og fjærde grammatiske afhandling i Snorres Edda tilligemed de grammatiske afhandlingers prolog og to andre tillæg. SUGNL 12. Copenhagen: Knudtzon.
  3. SnE 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
  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. RäF = Krause, Wolfgang and Herbert Jankuhn. 1966. Die Runeninschriften im älteren Futhark. Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen, Phil.-Hist. Kl., Dritte Folge 65. 2 vols. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
  9. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
  10. Internal references
  11. Elena Gurevich 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Elds 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. 920. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3234> (accessed 19 March 2024)
  12. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Sturla Þórðarson, Hrafnsmál 11’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 736.
  13. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2022, ‘Harðar saga 1 (Torfi Valbrandsson, Lausavísa 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 919.

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