Anon (LaufE) 4^III

Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from Laufás Edda 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. 641.

Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses

The helmingr illustrates kennings for ‘woman’ in which the base-word is a term for ‘king’ or ‘ruler’ (LaufE 1979, 293): Riett er ad kalla k(onu) könga h(eitum) gramur *hilmer og slykum nófnum Lofdungur sem hier er qvedid ‘It is correct to denote a woman by kings’ heiti, gramr, hilmir and such terms, lofðungr, as is said here’.

The helmingr is peculiar because it looks as though someone composed a conventional half-stanza that described the warlike activities of a male ruler and replaced certain words (and one line) with words that could be used to form kennings according to the pattern the stanza supposedly illustrates. The four kennings all participate in a double level of imagery, describing the activities of a woman when the kennings are complete, but describing the warlike activities of a male ruler when only the base-words of the kennings are included. Cf. lofðungr verr land rǫndum/brǫndum ‘the lord defends the land with shields/swords’ (l. 1) and hilmir gefr hjálmklæðum lítinn frið ‘the ruler gives little peace to helmet-clothes’ (ll. 3, 4) (for a discussion, see Meissner 84). Kennings for women in which the base-word is a m. term for ‘ruler’ are rare indeed, and the examples given by Meissner 412 are the two kennings from the present stanza, to which one may add konungr sprunda in Oddi Lv 2/4^II and konungr vífa in Anon Mdr 5/2^VII (both translate as ‘king among women’). See also Gamlkan Has 61/1-2^VII and Note to l. 1 there. Hence it could well be that this half-stanza was created to illustrate a type of kenning discussed in the prose (see the previous stanza, Note to [All]). — [1-4]: The present interpretation follows that of Skj B. Kock (Skald; NN §2126) interprets the stanza in the warlike context discussed in the previous Note: Lofðungr lauks verr land hauka máferils rǫndum; hilmir hvítinga gefr hjálmklæðum lítinn frið ‘The lord of the leek [WOMAN] defends the land of the hawks of the seagull-track [SEA > SEAGULLS > SEA] with shields; the ruler of drinking-horns [WOMAN] gives little peace to helmets’. Aside from the awkward and unparalleled kenning for ‘sea’ (land hauka máferils ‘the land of the hawks of the seagull-track [SEA > SEAGULLS > SEA]’; so also SnE 1848-87, III), it is difficult to give credence to the imagery of pugnacious women conjured up by this interpretation. Kock (NN §2991B) points out that Mberf Lv 3^II contains similar imagery, but that stanza is also highly unusual.