Þul Brynju 1^III

Brynja, kund, hjalmgǫll,         hrauð ok náin,
kǫld, Finnsleif,         …
bǫðfara, þýðsýn         ok blóðleika.

Brynja, kund, hjalmgǫll, hrauð ok náin, kǫld, Finnsleif … bǫðfara, þýðsýn ok blóðleika.

Mail-shirt, intimate friend, helmet-clang, covering one and near one, cold one, Finnsleif (‘Finnr’s legacy’) … battle-goer, pleasant-sight and blood-playmate.

Mss: R(43r), Tˣ(45r), C(12v), A(19r), B(9r), 744ˣ(71v) (SnE)

Readings: [1] Brynja: ‘[…]rýnía’ B, ‘Brýnía’ 744ˣ;    hjalmgǫll: corrected above the line from herkumbl A    [2] hrauð: ‘ok hvø̨ð’ A, ‘ok huo᷎d’ B;    náin (‘naín‑’): so B, nati R, Tˣ, C, ‘nán’ A    [3, 4] Finnsleif …: ‘finn leif’ B    [5] bǫðfara: so A, ‘bofø̨ra’ R, ‘borofa’ Tˣ, ‘bofæða’ C, blóðfara B;    þýðsýn: þýð sýn Tˣ, C, ‘þyn syn’ A, B    [6] ok: om. A, ‘[…]’ B, ok 744ˣ;    ‑leika: ‘‑l[…]ka’ B, ‘‑leika’ 744ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 668, Skj BI, 666, Skald I, 330, NN §§847B, 2565C, 2991E; SnE 1848-87, I, 573, II, 479, 562, 622, SnE 1931, 204, SnE 1998, I, 123.       

Notes: [All]: Except for brynja and Finnsleif, the names for ‘mail-shirt’ listed in this þula are not found elsewhere. All the terms are f., and some are sexualised and humanised. — [1-4]: Judging from alliteration in the surrounding text, l. 4 is missing, but none of the mss indicates a lacuna here. Moreover, ll. 1-3 in the mss are unmetrical (l. 1 is hypermetrical, and ll. 2-3 are hypometrical). The LaufE mss (LaufE 1979, 263, 339), which only list (normalised) hjalmgǫll, hrauð, Finnsleif and blóðleika, are of no help, and the additional heiti in RE 1665(Ee) (‘Brandfara’, ‘Thund’) do not fit the alliterative pattern. Kock (Skald; NN §§2565C, 2991E) rearranged the heiti in ll. 1-3 as follows (see also Note to l. 1 below): Kund, brynja, jalmgǫll, | kǫld, hrauð ok náin | Finnsleif. Kock’s emended version still leaves a missing half-line (l. 4) and does not obviate the metrical problems in ll. 1-3. — [1] hjalmgǫll (f.) ‘helmet-clang’: Not attested elsewhere as a cpd. The first element is hjálmr m. ‘helmet’ and the second a nomen actionis from the strong verbs gjalla, gella ‘cry, resound, make noise’. Kock (NN §§2565C, 2991E) believed that the correct form of this heiti was jalmgǫll ‘uproar-noise’, in which the first element is the poetic word jalmr m. ‘noise, bustle’ (cf. LP: jalmr). See also Note to [All] above. — [2] hrauð (f.) ‘covering’: Not attested in prose and not found elsewhere as a heiti for ‘mail-shirt’. The word may be related to OE hrēða ‘garment made from goat-skin’ (see AEW: hrauð and Falk 1914b, 174). Hrauð is also recorded in Þul Skipa 3/2 (see Note there). — [2] náin (f.) ‘near one’: So B (and adopted in Skj B and Skald). This must be the f. form of the adj. náinn ‘near, close’ (so LP: náinn). Cf. also Náinn m. among the dwarf-names (Þul Dverga 2/3) and as a heiti for ‘serpent’ (Þul Orma 3/1). This reading, however, is found only in B (and possibly as contracted ‘nán’ in A), while the other mss have ‘nati’ (adopted in SnE 1998; cf. nata f. ‘spear’), an obscure word also listed among the giant-names (see Note to Þul Jǫtna I 6/5). Because neither náin nor nati occur as terms for ‘mail-shirt’ in other sources, it is not clear which of the two variants is preferable. — [3] Finnsleif (f.) ‘(“Finnr’s legacy”)’: This is the name of a legendary treasure, the mail-shirt of King Aðils which could not be penetrated by weapons, mentioned in the story of Hrólfr kraki ‘Pole-ladder’ in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 59). Finnsleif is derived either from the name of a dwarf-craftsman Finnr (cf. Vsp 16/4 and Þul Dverga 5/3) or from the ethnic term finnr m. ‘Saami’. In the latter case, the heiti would refer to a Saami magic coat of mail. The heiti Finnsleif is also found in the rímur (Finnur Jónsson 1926-8: finnsleif). — [5] bǫðfara (f.) ‘battle-goer’: So A, and adopted in Skj B and Skald (cf. dynfara ‘noisy-goer’ in Þul Ǫrvar 1/4); B has blóðfara ‘blood-goer’. The readings in other mss are corrupt (‘bofø̨ra’ in R might be a corruption of bǫðfœra f. ‘battle-bringer’; so SnE 1998). None of these names occurs elsewhere. — [5] þýðsýn (f.) ‘pleasant-sight’: The heiti appears as a cpd only in R, and may be alternatively taken as two separate words (so Skj B and Skald), i.e. þýð ‘pleasant one’ (the f. form of the adj. þýðr ‘pleasant, friendly, pliable’) and sýn f. ‘sight, appearance’. — [6] blóðleika (f.) ‘blood-playmate’: A hap. leg. Cf. blóðfara ‘blood-goer’ (see Note to bǫðfara ‘battle-goer’ in l. 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. 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. LaufE 1979 = Faulkes, Anthony, ed. 1979. Edda Magnúsar Ólafssonar (Laufás Edda). RSÁM 13. Vol. I of Two Versions of Snorra Edda from the 17th Century. Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, 1977-9.
7. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
8. 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.
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. Falk, Hjalmar. 1914b. Altnordische Waffenkunde. Videnskapsselskapets skrifter, II. Hist.-filos. kl. 1914, 6. Kristiania (Oslo): Dybwad.
11. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
12. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
13. Internal references
14. (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 23 April 2024)
15. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Dverga heiti 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 695.
16. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Dverga heiti 5’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 701.
17. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Ǫrvar 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. 818.
18. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Orma heiti 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. 931.
19. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Skipa heiti 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. 865.
20. Not published: do not cite ()
21. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Laufás Edda’ 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=10928> (accessed 23 April 2024)