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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Þul Øxar 1III

Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Øxar 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. 813.

Anonymous ÞulurØxar heiti1

text and translation

Øx, járnsparða         ok jarðhyrna,
skjáfa ok skeggja,         skráma ok genja,
reginspǫnn, Gnepja,         gýgr ok fála,
snaga ok búlda,         barða ok vígglǫð,
þveita ok þenja;         þá es arghyrna;
hon es øfst talið         øxar heita.

Øx, járnsparða ok jarðhyrna, skjáfa ok skeggja, skráma ok genja, reginspǫnn, Gnepja, gýgr ok fála, snaga ok búlda, barða ok vígglǫð, þveita ok þenja; þá es arghyrna; hon es talið øfst heita øxar.
 
‘Axe, iron-axe and earth-horn, scraper and bearded one, skráma and gaper, mighty-span, Gnepja, ogress and troll-woman, spiked one and bulging one, whiskered one and battle-bright one, hewer and stretching one; then there is weak-horn; this is listed as the last of the names for axe.

notes and context

Some of the heiti listed in this þula (e.g. Gnepja, l. 5, gýgr ‘ogress’ and fála ‘troll-woman’, l. 6) are terms or names for troll-women, and all heiti are f. According to Skm (SnE 1998, I, 67), these heiti are formally half-kennings: øxar kalla menn trǫllkvinna heitum ok kenna við blóð eða benjar eða skóg eða við ‘people call axes by the names of troll-women and qualify them with terms for blood or wounds or forest or tree’. — [1-2]: Skj B and Skald render these lines as Øx, jarðhyrna | ok járnsparða ‘Axe, earth-horn and iron-axe’. The long-line is defective in both main groups of mss. In l. 1 in A and B, Øx is followed by the heiti jarðhyrna ‘earth-horn’, and R, C have jarðsparða ‘earth-axe’. Ms. and the LaufE mss give járnsparða ‘iron-axe’, as in the present edn. Line 2 is defective in all mss. Mss R, , C and the LaufE mss have hyrna ‘horn, corner of an axe’, which leaves the line hypometrical without alliteration, and the line is omitted in A and B (but cf. hyrna in jarðhyrna in the previous line in these mss). The compounds járn-(jarð)sparða and jarðhyrna appear to have been confused at an early point in the ms. transmission owing to the similarity of their first elements. Both terms are required to produce a regular line, however, and because agrees with the LaufE mss here (perhaps from a no-longer extant ms.), the order járnsparða, jarðhyrna 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], IV. m. Øxar heiti: AI, 665, BI, 664, Skald I, 329; SnE 1848-87, I, 569, II, 477, 561, 620-1, SnE 1931, 203, SnE 1998, I, 121.

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