Þul Women 2^III

Blíð es mær við móður;
mála drekkr á ekkju;
kvíðir kerling eiðu;
kveðr dóttir vel beðju.
Opt finnr ambátt hǫptu;
æ ’r frilla grǫm sværu;
kiljar kván ok elja;
kann nipt við snør skipta.

Mær es blíð við móður; mála drekkr á ekkju; kerling kvíðir eiðu; dóttir kveðr vel beðju. Ambátt finnr opt hǫptu; frilla [e]r æ grǫm sværu; kván ok elja kiljar; nipt kann skipta við snør.

The maiden is friendly towards her mother; a confidante drinks to a widow; an old woman worries about her mother; the daughter welcomes her bedfellow. The handmaid often visits the bondwoman; a mistress is forever angry with the mother-in-law; the wife and the concubine quarrel; the sister can deal with the daughter-in-law.

Mss: A(21r), U(44r) (SnE)

Readings: [1] móður: ‘moðr’ U    [6] sværu: so U, ‘sverꜹ’ A    [7] kván ok elja: kvæn við elju U

Editions: Skj AI, 652, Skj BI, 657, Skald I, 322; SnE 1848-87, II, 363, 491.

Notes: [All]: Most of the terms denoting social roles of women and terms of female kinship mentioned in this stanza are listed in the second part of the chapter Kvinna heiti ókend of Skm (SnE 1998, I, 107-8), but only three of them (mær ‘maiden’, kerling ‘old woman’ and ekkja ‘widow’) are also present in Þul Kvenna I. — [3] eiðu ‘mother’: Eiða f. is a fairly uncommon poetic word for mother (cf. Goth. aiþei ‘mother’). — [5] hǫptu ‘the bondwoman’: Hapta is the f. nom. sg. form of haptr m. ‘prisoner’ (cf. hapt n. ‘bond, fetter’ and the weak verb hepta ‘to bind’); hence denoting a female prisoner. Otherwise hapta is attested only in the eddic lays (cf. Guðr I 9/1-2, NK 203 Þá varð ec hapta | ok hernuma ‘Then I became a bondwoman and a captive’). — [6] frilla [e]r æ grǫm sværu ‘a mistress is forever angry with the mother-in-law’: The reading æ ’r (æ er in the mss) was suggested by Konráð Gíslason (Nj 1875-89, II, 900) and accepted in Skj B. The rhyme (æ ’r : ‑ær) shows that the [s] (in the earlier es ‘is’) has been rhotacised here and that we are dealing with a contracted form. For C13th unstable forms of such words (e.g. es and er), see Notes to SnSt Ht 58/1 and 82/5, 6. The word frilla f. (= friðla) ‘mistress’ occurs in prose also in the sense ‘harlot’ (see CVC: friðla) and in Old Norse poetry it otherwise appears only once (Hym 30/2), but it is found in the later rímur (Finnur Jónsson 1926-8: frilla). This is presumably one of those terms for ‘woman’ used for slander (til lastmælis) which the author of SnE, as he declares, preferred ‘not to copy down’ while composing the chapter Kvinna heiti ókend of Skm despite the fact that such words could be found in poetry (see SnE 1998, I, 108). The term sværa f. ‘mother-in-law’ (cf. Goth. swaihro ‘mother-in-law’) was not commonly used in Old Norse (see Fritzner: sværa), but it is mentioned in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 108): Sværa heitir vers móðir ‘A husband’s mother is called sværa’. It is not otherwise used in poetry. — [7] kván ok elja kiljar ‘the wife and the concubine quarrel’: For the sg. kiljar (‘lit. quarrels’) with a pl. subject, see Note to st. 1/1, 2. The verb kilja (kilja við e-n ‘quarrel with sby’ in U) does not occur elsewhere in Old Norse and its sense is controversial. According to CVC, kilja means ‘fondle’, while LP: kilja 1, Fritzner: kilja and ÍO: kilja 2 assume the opposite sense, ‘quarrel, abuse’ (see also the discussion of the noun kilja in Note to ÞjóðA Lv 6/5, 6^II). Presumably, the latter sense better suits the two heiti for ‘women’ mentioned in this line, kván f. (also kvæn (U)), the poetic term for ‘wedded wife’, which is never used in the general sense ‘woman’, and its opposite, elja f. ‘concubine’. Elja is derived either from ella adv. ‘otherwise’ or from eljan f./n. or eljun f. (variant forms) ‘endurance, energy, jealousy’ (see CVC: elja; AEW: elja). Skm (SnE 1998, I, 108) provides the following definition of this word: Þær konur heita eljur er einn mann eigu ‘Those women are called eljur who are wives of the same man’. See also the kenning for the goddess Jǫrð, ÞjóðA Sex 3/3^II elja Rindar ‘rival of Rindr <giantess>’ (both Jǫrð and Rindr were concubines of the god Óðinn in Old Norse myth). — [8] snør (f.) ‘the daughter-in-law’: In Old Norse poetry the word is otherwise attested only in eddic lays (Ghv 18/8 and as a pers. n. in Rþ 23/5).

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. SnE 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
4. Nj 1875-89 = Konráð Gíslason and Eiríkur Jónsson. 1875-89. Njála: Udgivet efter gamle håndskrifter. Íslendingasögur udgivne efter gamle haandskrifter af Det Kongelige Nordiske Oldskrift-selskab 4. Copenhagen: Thiele.
5. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
7. 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.
8. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
9. Finnur Jónsson. 1926-8. Ordbog til de af samfund til udg. af gml. nord. litteratur udgivne Rímur samt til de af Dr. O. Jiriczek udgivne Bósarímur. SUGNL 51. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
10. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
11. NK = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. I: Text. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
12. ÍO = Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon. 1989. Íslensk orðsifjabók. Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans.
13. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
14. Internal references
15. 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].
16. (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 26 April 2024)
17. Not published: do not cite ()
18. Not published: do not cite ()
19. Not published: do not cite ()
20. Not published: do not cite ()
21. Elena Gurevich 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Kvenna heiti’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 772. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3191> (accessed 26 April 2024)
22. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 58’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1167.
23. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, Sexstefja 3’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 114-16.
24. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, Lausavísur 6’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 171-2.