Note to Anon Óldr 14^I

[2, 4] liðrœkjanda hjalmraunar ‘carer of the snake of helmet-trial [(lit. ‘snake-carer of helmet-trial’) BATTLE > SWORD > WARRIOR]’: Ms. ‘lid’ is taken here as the variant form of linnr m. ‘snake’ (see LP: 2. liðr m.). This is very common as the base-word to sword-kennings (Meissner 154). Other possibilities include líð n. ‘ale’ as in (b) below and lið n. ‘support’ or ‘troop’ as in (c) below. The interpretation of hjalmraunar is also problematic. (a) The parallels for hjalmraun ‘helmet-trial, ‑test’ as a battle-kenning are few and weak (Meissner 200), but the parallelism of structure and placement of the stanza’s three main kenningar (each an inverted kenning, a component of each of them forming the first elements of ll. 2, 3 and 6) seems deliberate, and favours the interpretation here. (b) Hjalmraun is more plausible as a sword-kenning, giving hjalmraunar líðrœkjandi ‘carer of the ale of helmet-trial [SWORD > BLOOD > WARRIOR]’, but warrior-kennings with ‘blood’ as determinant are extremely rare (Meissner 278). (c) The other solution is to emend hjalm to gen. sg. hjalms, yielding liðrœkjanda hjalms ‘user/carer of the support of the helmet [WARRIOR]’ (so LP: liðrœkjandi) and the adv. raunar ‘really’ attached to the second clause, but the construals along these lines in Skj B and NN §2453 are not persuasive.

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. 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.
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.