Note to Anon Liðs 6I
[7-8] skeggja byggs brunns ‘denizen of the barley of the spring [STONE > ? = Ullkell]’: This curious expression probably refers to Ulfcytel. Bygg brunns ‘barley of the spring’ must mean ‘stone, rock’ (cf. Meissner 90), hence *steinskeggi, which Finnur Jónsson takes as equivalent to eyjarskeggi ‘island-dweller’ (LP: skeggi; cf. Schier 1976a, 583). However, this seems unnecessary since *steinskeggi can be a ‘dweller in stone’, just as hraunskeggi is somebody living on a lava-field (hraun). No doubt Ulfcytel is envisaged as occupying a stone fortification (cf. the reference to a stone-dwelling woman in st. 8/1, 4). London, with its stone walls dating from the Roman era, would fit with this allusion. Normally a kenning of this type would apply to giants, who are archetypally dwellers in (or on) stones, rocks, or mountains. It seems incongruous here, but perhaps some kind of humorous or disparaging effect is intended (cf. Note to Anon Óldr 15/7, 8).
References
- Bibliography
- 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.
- 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.
- Schier, Kurt. 1976a. ‘Húsdrápa 2: Heimdall, Loki und die Meerniere’. In Birkhan 1976, 577-88.
- Internal references
- Kate Heslop (ed.) 2012, ‘Anonymous Poems, Óláfs drápa Tryggvasonar 15’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1047.