Þul Waves 1^III

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.

Mss: A(21v) (SnE)

Readings: [5] grœn*: grønn A

Editions: Skj AI, 652, Skj BI, 657-8, Skald I, 322, NN §2159; SnE 1848-87, II, 493.

Notes: [1] Drǫfn: See Notes to Þul Sjóvar 4 [All] and 4/5. — [1] stál ‘prow’: Although the word occurs frequently in skaldic poetry, it is not mentioned in Þul Skipa. — [2] Bylgja: See Note to Þul Sjóvar 4 [All]. — [3] Hefring: See Notes to Þul Sjóvar 4 [All] and ESk Frag 17/7. — [4] Himinglæva: See Notes to Þul Sjóvar 4 [All] and ESk Frag 17/2. — [4] mar Vimrar ‘the horse of Vimur <river> [SHIP]’: Vimur is the name of a river in Old Norse myth (see Note to Þul Á 1/3). — [5-6]: (a) The present interpretation follows Skj B. Gaddr ‘anchor-fluke’ (l. 6) occurs in the same meaning in ÞjóðA Har 6/7^II 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 35/7^III húfar svǫlðu ‘the hulls became cool’, and that construction has been adopted in the present edn. — [5] Hrǫnn: See Notes to Þul Sjóvar 4 [All] and 4/3. — [6] Blóðughadda: See Notes to Þul Sjóvar 4 [All], 4/8 and ESk Frag 17/5.  — [7, 8] elg egghúfs ‘the elk of the sharp-edged hull [SHIP]’: The exact sense of egg- in egghúfr is not clear. As a first element in compounds, egg- usually means ‘(sharp) edge (of a weapon)’ (LP: egg f. 2). That meaning has been adopted in the present edn, in which ‘sharp-edged’ is taken to refer to a specific part of the hull, perhaps where the hull tapers to the prow. Cf. meginhúfr lit. ‘main strake’ (the strongest strake in the hull) and róðrarhúfr ‘lit. ‘rowing-strake’ (the strake in the hull where the oarports were). According to LP: egghúfr, egg- might also refer to the oval shape of a ship’s hull (hence from ON egg n. ‘egg’), which is hardly appropriate in the present context. For elgr ‘elk’, see Note to ESk Lv 7/3. — [7] venr ‘accustom’: Lit. ‘accustoms’ (3rd pers. sg. pres. indic.); the verb is in the sg. but has a coordinate subject. — [7] Uðr; Kólga: See Notes to Þul Sjóvar 4 [All], 4/3 and ESk Frag 17/3 (Unnar), 17/6. — [8] Dúfu ‘Dúfa’s’: See Notes to Þul Sjóvar 4 [All] and ESk Frag 17/4.

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. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. 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.
7. Internal references
8. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Sjóvar heiti 4’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 836.
9. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Á heiti 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. 838.
10. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Einarr Skúlason, Lausavísur 7’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 169.
11. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Einarr Skúlason, Fragments 17’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 167.
12. Elena Gurevich 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Skipa 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. 861. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3208> (accessed 2 May 2024)
13. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 35’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1142.
14. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, Stanzas about Haraldr Sigurðarson’s leiðangr 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. 156-7.