Note to Þorf Lv 1^I

[1-4]: (a) The construal adopted here follows that of Kock (NN §781; Skald). It is slightly forced, especially in its reference to báðar benskeiðr ‘both wound-ships [SWORDS]’, since ‘ship’ as a base-word of a sword-kenning is unparalleled, and the reference to two swords corresponds to nothing in the legend of Sigurðr. ‘Both’ would make sense if referred to the two edges of a sword-blade, and Kock seems to imply that by referring to grammatically pl. terms for ‘sword’ such as þremjar ‘cutters’ (Þul Sverða 11/1^III, and see Note; also LP: þremjar), but benskeiðr ‘wound-ships’ would seem more likely to denote whole swords. (b) The analysis by Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) is also problematic, however. He emends jarðar to jarðir in l. 2, and ben- to baugs- and s(k)eiðr to seiðs in l. 4. This gives munna seiðs grundar ‘jaws of the fish of the ground [SNAKE]’ and (báðar) jarðir baugs ‘(both) lands of the ring [ARMS]’, which fit well in context, but at the price not only of heavy emendation but also of a highly counter-intuitive word order, in which seiðs and jarðir are detached from their clauses.

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. 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.
6. Internal references
7. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Sverða heiti 11’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 809.