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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Þul Waves 1III

Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Heiti for waves 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. 997.

Anonymous ÞulurHeiti for waves1

text and translation

Drǫfn skylr stál, þars stafni
straumfylgin þvær Bylgja;
Hefring brestr, en hristir
Himinglæva mar Vimrar.
Hrǫnn dregr grœn* ór grunni
gadd; svelr Blóðughadda;
elg venr Uðr ok Kolga
egghúfs við glym Dúfu.

Drǫfn skylr stál, þars straumfylgin Bylgja þvær stafni; Hefring brestr, en Himinglæva hristir {mar Vimrar}. Grœn* Hrǫnn dregr gadd ór grunni; Blóðughadda svelr; Uðr ok Kolga venr {elg egghúfs} við glym Dúfu.
 
‘Drǫfn washes the prow where the stream-following Bylgja rinses the stem; Hefring breaks and Himinglæva shakes the horse of Vimur <river> [SHIP]. The green Hrǫnn pulls the anchor-fluke from the bottom of the sea; Blóðughadda becomes cold; Uðr and Kólga accustom the elk of the sharp-edged hull [SHIP] to Dúfa’s din.

notes and context

[5-6]: (a) The present interpretation follows Skj B. Gaddr ‘anchor-fluke’ (l. 6) occurs in the same meaning in ÞjóðA Har 6/7II af gaddi digrum ‘at the stout anchor-fluke’. (b) In LP, gaddr is interpreted as ‘ice’ and taken as the object of the verb svelja (svelr) ‘become cold’ so that the clause has a different subject: Blodughadda bevirker ved sin kulde is (på søen) ‘Blóðughadda is causing with its coolness ice [to form] on the surface (of the sea)’. The latter explanation not only causes difficulties for the interpretation of the preceding line, but it is also not in keeping with the syntactic structure of the couplets in this stanza, in which no single line constitutes a complete clause. (c) Kock (NN §2159) suggests another interpretation of l. 6. Because the verb svelja ‘become cold’ in Blóðughadda svelr is intransitive, he maintains that the better reading is Blóðughadda svellr ‘Blóðughadda swells’ (cf. hafit svellr, sær svellr ‘the sea swells’, see LP: svella). However, the verb svelja is also used intransitively in SnSt Ht 35/7III húfar svǫlðu ‘the hulls became cool’, and that construction has been adopted in the present edn.

readings

sources

Text is based on reconstruction from the base text and variant apparatus and may contain alternative spellings and other normalisations not visible in the manuscript text. Transcriptions may not have been checked and should not be cited.

editions and texts

Skj: Anonyme digte og vers [XII], I. III. 4. Þulur: Forskellige: Bølgenavne: AI, 652, BI, 657-8, Skald I, 322, NN §2159; SnE 1848-87, II, 493.

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