Anon (TGT) 28^III

En ‘But’

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2. en (conj.): but, and

skinn ‘skinned’

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skinn (noun n.; °-s; -): skin, fur, leather < skinnbjartr (adj.)

bjarta ‘the bright’

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bjartr (adj.; °compar. -ari, superl. -astr): bright < skinnbjartr (adj.)

skortir ‘lacks’

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2. skorta (verb): be short of, lack

notes

[1] skortir ‘lacks’: Skorta is construed impersonally with two accusatives here (e-n skortir e-t).

skap ‘the temperament’

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1. skap (noun n.; °-s; *-): mind, fate

kannask ‘is known’

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3. kanna (verb): know, be able

mér ‘to me’

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ek (pron.; °mín, dat. mér, acc. mik): I, me

svanna ‘of the woman’

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svanni (noun m.): lady, woman

dýr ‘animal’

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1. dýr (noun n.; °-s (spec.: dyʀiɴs KonrA 66⁴‡, etc., cf. Seip 1955 188-189); -): animal

notes

[3] hon [e]s … hætt dýr ‘she is … a dangerous animal’: This interpretation is implicit in Óláfr’s comments to this stanza (TGT 1927, 74): Hér er dýr kǫlluð konan ‘Here the woman is called an animal’. Without reference to the prose context, dýr could be understood as f. nom. sg. of dýrr adj. ‘expensive’, hence ‘she is dangerously expensive’ or ‘she is precious’ (without hætt), the interpretation adopted by some eds (TGT 1884; NN §1233B; Skj B).

s ‘is’

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2. vera (verb): be, is, was, were, are, am

notes

[3] hon [e]s … hætt dýr ‘she is … a dangerous animal’: This interpretation is implicit in Óláfr’s comments to this stanza (TGT 1927, 74): Hér er dýr kǫlluð konan ‘Here the woman is called an animal’. Without reference to the prose context, dýr could be understood as f. nom. sg. of dýrr adj. ‘expensive’, hence ‘she is dangerously expensive’ or ‘she is precious’ (without hætt), the interpretation adopted by some eds (TGT 1884; NN §1233B; Skj B).

hon ‘she’

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hann (pron.; °gen. hans, dat. honum; f. hon, gen. hennar, acc. hana): he, she, it, they, them...

notes

[3] hon [e]s … hætt dýr ‘she is … a dangerous animal’: This interpretation is implicit in Óláfr’s comments to this stanza (TGT 1927, 74): Hér er dýr kǫlluð konan ‘Here the woman is called an animal’. Without reference to the prose context, dýr could be understood as f. nom. sg. of dýrr adj. ‘expensive’, hence ‘she is dangerously expensive’ or ‘she is precious’ (without hætt), the interpretation adopted by some eds (TGT 1884; NN §1233B; Skj B).

hætt ‘a dangerous’

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hættr (adj.; °compar. -ari/-ri, superl. -astr): dangerous

notes

[3] hætt ‘dangerous’: Both Björn Magnússon Ólsen (TGT 1884) and Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) take hætt with hálmmein/hállmeins, i.e. ‘dangerous fire’, but this creates a tripartite l. 3. — [3] hon [e]s … hætt dýr ‘she is … a dangerous animal’: This interpretation is implicit in Óláfr’s comments to this stanza (TGT 1927, 74): Hér er dýr kǫlluð konan ‘Here the woman is called an animal’. Without reference to the prose context, dýr could be understood as f. nom. sg. of dýrr adj. ‘expensive’, hence ‘she is dangerously expensive’ or ‘she is precious’ (without hætt), the interpretation adopted by some eds (TGT 1884; NN §1233B; Skj B).

hætt ‘a dangerous’

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hættr (adj.; °compar. -ari/-ri, superl. -astr): dangerous

notes

[3] hætt ‘dangerous’: Both Björn Magnússon Ólsen (TGT 1884) and Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) take hætt with hálmmein/hállmeins, i.e. ‘dangerous fire’, but this creates a tripartite l. 3. — [3] hon [e]s … hætt dýr ‘she is … a dangerous animal’: This interpretation is implicit in Óláfr’s comments to this stanza (TGT 1927, 74): Hér er dýr kǫlluð konan ‘Here the woman is called an animal’. Without reference to the prose context, dýr could be understood as f. nom. sg. of dýrr adj. ‘expensive’, hence ‘she is dangerously expensive’ or ‘she is precious’ (without hætt), the interpretation adopted by some eds (TGT 1884; NN §1233B; Skj B).

at ‘in’

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3. at (prep.): at, to

hváru ‘any case’

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hvárr (pron.): who, which, what, whether

hálm ‘straw’

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halmr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -i/-): straw < halmmein (noun n.)

[4] hálmmein: ‘halm æín’ W

kennings

notes

[4] hálmmein ‘straw-harm [BLADE]’: Emendation is justified as W, the only witness here, frequently omits single letters which are otherwise preserved in A and B. Sveinbjörn Egilsson (SnE 1848-87, I, 332) suggested the emendation included here. The present interpretation is based on the use of a scythe or blade for cutting hay (cf. the Strøm whetstone (Run KJ50/2^VI; RäF 110-13) h͡ah͡askaþih͡aþuligi ‘may it harm the hay [but] lie [peacefully] in a fight’, referring to the blade sharpened by the stone). This produces the sense that although the woman lacks a blade, she is nevertheless dangerous. Although a large number of kennings for ‘fire’ follow a similar pattern, they all have a determinant referring to wood or something wooden (wood, tree, forest, hall, branch; cf. Meissner 100-1), rather than ‘straw’, as here. (b) Most eds nevertheless interpret hálmmein ‘straw-harm’ as a kenning for ‘fire’. In this reading, the sense would then be metaphorical: eldr, for example, is used elsewhere to refer to passionate feelings (ONP: eldr 17). Björn Magnússon Ólsen (TGT 1884, 214) suggests an ofljóst construction involving the referent ‘fire’: fire is also birti ‘brightness’ which in turn is homonymous with skírleikr, which can also mean ‘purity, chastity’, producing the sense that the woman is unchaste. Finnur Jónsson adopts this interpretation in LP: halmein). However, birti is not recorded with the sense ‘fire’ (rather, ‘brightness’; cf. LP, Fritzner, ONP); and it is not included in the þulur among heiti for ‘fire’ (Þul Elds).  (c) Kock (NN §1233B) also construes a kenning for ‘fire’ but emends to hallmeins ‘of the hall-harm [FIRE]’ by analogy with other kennings such as lífgalli hallar ‘life-harm of the hall [FIRE]’ (Sturl Hrafn 11/4^II), but a cpd ‘hall-harm’ would be ON hallarmein (hypermetrical) rather than hallmein. He takes this with Njǫrun as a kenning for ‘woman’ (cf. Meissner 417) and translates: Lider än den blonda kvinnan … brist på ädla stenar, är hon farligt dyr i alla fall ‘Even if the blonde woman suffers a lack of precious stones, she is nonetheless dangerously expensive’. This reading requires two emendations, and Njǫrun steina is elsewhere attested in this metrical position as a kenning for ‘woman’ (TorfiV Lv 1/6^V (Harð 1)).

mein ‘harm’

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mein (noun n.; °-s; -): harm, injury < halmmein (noun n.)

[4] hálmmein: ‘halm æín’ W

kennings

notes

[4] hálmmein ‘straw-harm [BLADE]’: Emendation is justified as W, the only witness here, frequently omits single letters which are otherwise preserved in A and B. Sveinbjörn Egilsson (SnE 1848-87, I, 332) suggested the emendation included here. The present interpretation is based on the use of a scythe or blade for cutting hay (cf. the Strøm whetstone (Run KJ50/2^VI; RäF 110-13) h͡ah͡askaþih͡aþuligi ‘may it harm the hay [but] lie [peacefully] in a fight’, referring to the blade sharpened by the stone). This produces the sense that although the woman lacks a blade, she is nevertheless dangerous. Although a large number of kennings for ‘fire’ follow a similar pattern, they all have a determinant referring to wood or something wooden (wood, tree, forest, hall, branch; cf. Meissner 100-1), rather than ‘straw’, as here. (b) Most eds nevertheless interpret hálmmein ‘straw-harm’ as a kenning for ‘fire’. In this reading, the sense would then be metaphorical: eldr, for example, is used elsewhere to refer to passionate feelings (ONP: eldr 17). Björn Magnússon Ólsen (TGT 1884, 214) suggests an ofljóst construction involving the referent ‘fire’: fire is also birti ‘brightness’ which in turn is homonymous with skírleikr, which can also mean ‘purity, chastity’, producing the sense that the woman is unchaste. Finnur Jónsson adopts this interpretation in LP: halmein). However, birti is not recorded with the sense ‘fire’ (rather, ‘brightness’; cf. LP, Fritzner, ONP); and it is not included in the þulur among heiti for ‘fire’ (Þul Elds).  (c) Kock (NN §1233B) also construes a kenning for ‘fire’ but emends to hallmeins ‘of the hall-harm [FIRE]’ by analogy with other kennings such as lífgalli hallar ‘life-harm of the hall [FIRE]’ (Sturl Hrafn 11/4^II), but a cpd ‘hall-harm’ would be ON hallarmein (hypermetrical) rather than hallmein. He takes this with Njǫrun as a kenning for ‘woman’ (cf. Meissner 417) and translates: Lider än den blonda kvinnan … brist på ädla stenar, är hon farligt dyr i alla fall ‘Even if the blonde woman suffers a lack of precious stones, she is nonetheless dangerously expensive’. This reading requires two emendations, and Njǫrun steina is elsewhere attested in this metrical position as a kenning for ‘woman’ (TorfiV Lv 1/6^V (Harð 1)).

Njǫrun ‘Njǫrun’

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Njǫrun (noun f.): Njǫrun

kennings

steina ‘of stones’

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steinn (noun m.; °steins; steinar): stone, colour

kennings