Note to Anon Óldr 3I
[1-4]: This helmingr is awkward in several ways. Its word order is convoluted (though see e.g. sts 1/5-8, 10/1-4, 20/5-8, 26). More seriously, efna ‘to perform, carry out’ appears to be intransitive, which is rare at best (LP: efna offers an instance of absolute use in Oddrgr 10/5, but the context there supplies an understood object). These problems can be addressed by emending vǫrðr m. ‘guardian; guardianship, watch’ to acc. sg. vǫrð (so Skj B and Skald), hence œski-Baldr stála, sás ungr efnði vǫrð ýta í Gǫrðum við aldir, vas nefndr Ôleifr fyr mér ‘the wishing Baldr of steel weapons, he who [when] young carried out defence of men in Russia against people, was named to me [as] Óláfr’. The rather unconvincing phrase efna vǫrð ‘carry out defence’ lacks parallels, however, since efna most often combines with a noun referring to oaths or revenge (cf. st. 5/8 and LP, LT: efna).
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.
- Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- 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.
- LT = La Farge, Beatrice and John Tucker. 1992. Glossary to the Poetic Edda, based on Hans Kuhn’s Kurzes Wörterbuch. Skandinavistische Arbeiten 15. Heidelberg: Winter.
- Internal references
- Not published: do not cite ()