Þórr’s fishing — Bragi Þórr^III

Six dróttkvætt helmingar (Bragi Þórr 1-6) attributed to Bragi Boddason, most likely from a longer poem about the god Þórr’s fishing expedition to catch the World Serpent, Miðgarðsormr, are extant in mss of Skm (SnE). Stanza 1 occurs in mss R, Tˣ, W, U and B. Stanzas 2, 3 and 5 occur in the same set of mss, minus B, while st. 4 is extant only in R and Tˣ and st. 6 is found in R, Tˣ, A, B, and C. Ms. 744ˣ has been used selectively in st. 6 at points where B is no longer legible.

Earlier editors have included these helmingar as part of Bragi Rdr (see discussion in Introduction to Rdr), although the mss of SnE do not indicate this, as they do with other stanzas clearly designated as from this drápa, nor do they cite all the stanzas about Þórr together, a treatment afforded to both the subjects of Rdr and those of the comparable ekphrasis Þjóð Haustl. There is also no recorded stef. Thus these helmingar have been edited separately here as belonging to a poem describing Þórr’s fishing expedition. It is possible that it was part of Rdr or some other ekphrasis, but there is no evidence to support those hypotheses. It is also possible that some of the lines quoted in SnE as helmingar may have originally combined to form whole stanzas.

The mythological subject of Þórr’s fight with Miðgarðsormr was very popular in the Viking Age and existed in several variant forms attested from the visual arts and from early poetry; for a discussion, see Meulengracht Sørensen (1986), Fuglesang (2007), Dronke (2011, 94-100) and cf. several fragments from poems about Þórr by Ǫlvir hnufa (Ǫlv Þórr), Úlfr Uggason (ÚlfrU Húsdr 3-6), Eysteinn Valdason (EVald Þórr), Gamli gnævaðarskáld (Ggnæv Þórr) and sts 17-24 of the eddic poem Hym. The god is usually accompanied by the giant Hymir (as here), who provides him with his bait (an ox-head) and tries to cut Þórr’s fishing line out of fear of the impending close encounter with the World Serpent. In some versions he succeeds (cf. Bragi’s st. 6) and the serpent falls back into the ocean, to await a second, fatal encounter with Þórr at Ragnarǫk, as SnE 2005, 44-5 (Gylf) and – apparently – Bragi prefer; in other versions, such as that known to Úlfr Uggason in Húsdrápa ‘House-drápa’ (ÚlfrU Húsdr), Þórr succeeds in striking off the serpent’s head in the waves. For further discussion of the myth, its representations and its meaning, see Introduction to ÚlfrU Húsdr 3-6.

In this edition the sequence of stanzas cited in the R text of SnE has been preserved, as providing the best narrative sequence. This coincides with the sequence in Skj (= Rdr sts 14-19), except that the order of what are here sts 2 and 3 are there reversed.

References

1. Bibliography
2. SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
3. Meulengracht Sørensen, Preben. 1986. ‘Thor’s Fishing Expedition’. In Steinsland 1986a, 257-78. Rpt. in Acker and Larrington 2002, 119-37.
4. Dronke, Ursula, ed. and trans. 2011. The Poetic Edda. III: Mythological Poems II. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
5. Fuglesang, Signe Horn. 2007. ‘Ekphrasis and Surviving Imagery in Viking Scandinavia’. Viking and Medieval Scandinavia 3, 193-224.
6. Internal references
7. Edith Marold 2017, ‘Snorra Edda (Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál)’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].
8. Margaret Clunies Ross 2017, ‘(Biography of) Eysteinn Valdason’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 185.
9. Margaret Clunies Ross 2017, ‘(Biography of) Gamli gnævaðarskáld’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 189.
10. (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=112> (accessed 24 April 2024)
11. (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=113> (accessed 24 April 2024)
13. Not published: do not cite (Run^VI)
14. Margaret Clunies Ross 2017, ‘ Bragi inn gamli Boddason, Ragnarsdrápa’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 27. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1130> (accessed 24 April 2024)
15. Margaret Clunies Ross 2017, ‘ Eysteinn Valdason, Poem about Þórr’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 185. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1156> (accessed 24 April 2024)
16. Margaret Clunies Ross 2017, ‘ Gamli gnævaðarskáld, Poem about Þórr’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 189. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1199> (accessed 24 April 2024)
17. Margaret Clunies Ross 2017, ‘ Ǫlvir hnúfa, Poem about Þórr’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 491. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1334> (accessed 24 April 2024)
18. Margaret Clunies Ross 2017, ‘ Þjóðólfr ór Hvini, Haustlǫng’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 431. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1438> (accessed 24 April 2024)
19. Edith Marold with the assistance of Vivian Busch, Jana Krüger, Ann-Dörte Kyas and Katharina Seidel, translated from German by John Foulks 2017, ‘ Úlfr Uggason, Húsdrápa’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 402. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1492> (accessed 24 April 2024)
20. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Bragi inn gamli Boddason, Þórr’s fishing 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 47.
21. Not published: do not cite ()
22. Edith Marold (ed.) 2017, ‘Úlfr Uggason, Húsdrápa 3’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 412.