Bragi Þórr 1III
Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Bragi inn gamli Boddason, Þórr’s fishing 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. 47.
Þat ‘It’
notes
[1] þat erumk sent ‘it is conveyed to me’: The introductory formula indicates that this helmingr probably introduced the stanzas on Þórr’s fishing expedition and very plausibly refers to the poet’s being presented with an object, perhaps a shield, on which the myth was depicted. For the form erumk = er mér, see ANG §465.3. The majority of mss read sent, p. p. of senda ‘send, convey’, but U’s reading sýnt ‘shown’ is also plausible, and is preferred by Skj B and Skald.
erumk ‘is’
(not checked:)
2. vera (verb): be, is, was, were, are, am
notes
[1] þat erumk sent ‘it is conveyed to me’: The introductory formula indicates that this helmingr probably introduced the stanzas on Þórr’s fishing expedition and very plausibly refers to the poet’s being presented with an object, perhaps a shield, on which the myth was depicted. For the form erumk = er mér, see ANG §465.3. The majority of mss read sent, p. p. of senda ‘send, convey’, but U’s reading sýnt ‘shown’ is also plausible, and is preferred by Skj B and Skald.
notes
[1] þat erumk sent ‘it is conveyed to me’: The introductory formula indicates that this helmingr probably introduced the stanzas on Þórr’s fishing expedition and very plausibly refers to the poet’s being presented with an object, perhaps a shield, on which the myth was depicted. For the form erumk = er mér, see ANG §465.3. The majority of mss read sent, p. p. of senda ‘send, convey’, but U’s reading sýnt ‘shown’ is also plausible, and is preferred by Skj B and Skald.
snemma ‘soon’
(not checked:)
snemma (adv.): early
sonr ‘the son’
(not checked:)
sonr (noun m.; °-ar, dat. syni; synir, acc. sonu, syni): son
[2] sonr: son W, B
kennings
sonr Aldafǫðrs‘the son of mankind’s father ’
= Þórr
mankind’s father → Óðinn
the son of ÓÐINN → Þórr
Alda ‘of mankind’s’
(not checked:)
ǫld (noun f.; °; aldir): people, age < aldafǫðr (noun m.): [mankind father]
[2] Aldafǫðrs: so Tˣ, W, ‘alda fꜹðs’ R, ‘alfavþrs’ U, ‘alldafo᷎durs’ B
kennings
sonr Aldafǫðrs‘the son of mankind’s father ’
= Þórr
mankind’s father → Óðinn
the son of ÓÐINN → Þórr
notes
[2] Aldafǫðrs ‘of mankind’s father [= Óðinn]’: A specific kenning for Óðinn, whose son is Þórr. The correct form of the contracted gen. sg. of fǫðr, m. ‘father’ (beside faðir), is found in Tˣ and W. Ms. U’s Alfǫðrs, ‘All-father’, provides a line that is too short. For a discussion of the name Aldafǫðr, see Note to Þul Óðins 1/4.
Alda ‘of mankind’s’
(not checked:)
ǫld (noun f.; °; aldir): people, age < aldafǫðr (noun m.): [mankind father]
[2] Aldafǫðrs: so Tˣ, W, ‘alda fꜹðs’ R, ‘alfavþrs’ U, ‘alldafo᷎durs’ B
kennings
sonr Aldafǫðrs‘the son of mankind’s father ’
= Þórr
mankind’s father → Óðinn
the son of ÓÐINN → Þórr
notes
[2] Aldafǫðrs ‘of mankind’s father [= Óðinn]’: A specific kenning for Óðinn, whose son is Þórr. The correct form of the contracted gen. sg. of fǫðr, m. ‘father’ (beside faðir), is found in Tˣ and W. Ms. U’s Alfǫðrs, ‘All-father’, provides a line that is too short. For a discussion of the name Aldafǫðr, see Note to Þul Óðins 1/4.
fǫðrs ‘ father’
(not checked:)
faðir (noun m.): father < aldafǫðr (noun m.): [mankind father]
[2] Aldafǫðrs: so Tˣ, W, ‘alda fꜹðs’ R, ‘alfavþrs’ U, ‘alldafo᷎durs’ B
kennings
sonr Aldafǫðrs‘the son of mankind’s father ’
= Þórr
mankind’s father → Óðinn
the son of ÓÐINN → Þórr
notes
[2] Aldafǫðrs ‘of mankind’s father [= Óðinn]’: A specific kenning for Óðinn, whose son is Þórr. The correct form of the contracted gen. sg. of fǫðr, m. ‘father’ (beside faðir), is found in Tˣ and W. Ms. U’s Alfǫðrs, ‘All-father’, provides a line that is too short. For a discussion of the name Aldafǫðr, see Note to Þul Óðins 1/4.
fǫðrs ‘ father’
(not checked:)
faðir (noun m.): father < aldafǫðr (noun m.): [mankind father]
[2] Aldafǫðrs: so Tˣ, W, ‘alda fꜹðs’ R, ‘alfavþrs’ U, ‘alldafo᷎durs’ B
kennings
sonr Aldafǫðrs‘the son of mankind’s father ’
= Þórr
mankind’s father → Óðinn
the son of ÓÐINN → Þórr
notes
[2] Aldafǫðrs ‘of mankind’s father [= Óðinn]’: A specific kenning for Óðinn, whose son is Þórr. The correct form of the contracted gen. sg. of fǫðr, m. ‘father’ (beside faðir), is found in Tˣ and W. Ms. U’s Alfǫðrs, ‘All-father’, provides a line that is too short. For a discussion of the name Aldafǫðr, see Note to Þul Óðins 1/4.
vildi ‘wanted’
(not checked:)
vilja (verb): want, intend
við ‘against’
(not checked:)
2. við (prep.): with, against
þafðan ‘pounded’
(not checked:)
þafðr (adj./verb p.p.): [pounded]
[3] þafðan: ‘hefðann’ Tˣ, þæfðan W, þaktan U, ‘þe᷎fðan’ B
notes
[3] þafðan ‘pounded’: The inf. form *þefja, of which þafðr ‘pounded, stirred, beaten’ is the p. p., has not been recorded in Old Icelandic, but must have existed; the p. p. þafðan is recorded in the sense of ‘thickened by stirring’ (of porridge) in Eyrbyggja saga (Eb ch. 39, ÍF 4, 105). Skj B and Skald, basing themselves on W’s and B’s readings, prefer the form þœfðan, which would derive from the more common verb þœfa ‘press/full cloth’.
jarðar ‘of the earth’
(not checked:)
jǫrð (noun f.; °jarðar, dat. -u; jarðir/jarðar(DN I (1367) 304)): ground, earth
kennings
reist jarðar,‘the twisted thing of the earth, ’
= Miðgarðsormr
the twisted thing of the earth, → Miðgarðsormr
notes
[4] reist jarðar ‘the twisted thing of the earth [= Miðgarðsormr]’: A kenning for the World Serpent, Miðgarðsormr, who was imagined to lie coiled around the circular earth. It belongs to a kenning-type whose base-word represents the serpent as a thong, rope, girdle or ring (Meissner 114-15). Reistr m. is a hap. leg., lit. ‘twisted, bent thing’; cf. the weak verb reista ‘bend, curve’ and see Marold (1993b, 301 n. 10).
kennings
reist jarðar,‘the twisted thing of the earth, ’
= Miðgarðsormr
the twisted thing of the earth, → Miðgarðsormr
notes
[4] reist jarðar ‘the twisted thing of the earth [= Miðgarðsormr]’: A kenning for the World Serpent, Miðgarðsormr, who was imagined to lie coiled around the circular earth. It belongs to a kenning-type whose base-word represents the serpent as a thong, rope, girdle or ring (Meissner 114-15). Reistr m. is a hap. leg., lit. ‘twisted, bent thing’; cf. the weak verb reista ‘bend, curve’ and see Marold (1993b, 301 n. 10).
of ‘’
(not checked:)
4. of (particle): (before verb)
freista ‘to try’
(not checked:)
freista (verb): attempt, tempt
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
The six half-stanzas about Þórr’s fishing expedition are cited in mss of Skm as examples of kennings for Óðinn (st. 1), Þórr (sts 2, 3, 4), ‘poison’ (‘drink of the Vǫlsungar’, st. 5) and ‘wave’ (st. 6), found in R in that order but not as a continuous sequence. Stanza 1 is quoted as one of a number of stanzas that exemplify kennings for Óðinn, in this case Aldafǫðr ‘father of mankind’. It is introduced by the clause Svá kvað Bragi ‘Thus spoke Bragi’.
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