Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Bragi inn gamli Boddason, Þórr’s fishing 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. 48.
Vaðr lá Viðris arfa
vilgi slakr, es rakðisk,
á Eynæfis ǫndri,
Jǫrmungandr at sandi.
Vaðr {arfa Viðris} lá vilgi slakr á {ǫndri Eynæfis}, es Jǫrmungandr rakðisk at sandi.
The fishing line {of Viðrir’s <= Óðinn’s> heir} [= Þórr] lay not at all slack on {the ski of Eynæfir <sea-king>} [SHIP], when Jǫrmungandr <= Miðgarðsormr> unwound himself on the sand.
Mss: R(21v), Tˣ(22r), W(47), U(27v) (SnE)
Readings: [2] es (‘er’): né U [3] Eynæfis: so U, ‘eynefis’ R, Tˣ, ‘ænefis’ W; ǫndri: andri Tˣ, ‘an[…]’ U
Editions: Skj AI, 4, Skj BI, 4, Skald I, 2, NN §219; SnE 1848-87, I, 252-5, II, 308, III, 15, SnE 1931, 95, SnE 1998, I, 14-15.
Context: This helmingr, along with sts 3 and 4, are quoted in the section of Skm that deals with kennings for the god Þórr. Stanza 2 is introduced by the clause Svá kvað Bragi skáld ‘Thus spoke Bragi the poet’.
Notes: [All]: Both Skj and Skald place this helmingr after what is here st. 3, but equally good sense (in terms of the known myth) is created by the sequence adopted here, which also follows the order in which sts 2, 3 and 4 are cited in Skm. According to this reading, Þórr perceives his fishing line go taut against the side of the ship (Bragi uses litotes to describe this) as the World Serpent uncoils itself on the sea-floor, having swallowed Þórr’s baited hook, before the god raises his hammer (see st. 3) in readiness to strike his adversary’s head as it emerges from the waves. Other interpretations of the stanza are possible. Skj B understands Miðgarðsormr to unwind upon the sand after Þórr has pulled him up from the bottom da midgårdsormen efterhånden (ved optrækningen) slæbtes henad sandbunden ‘when the Midgard serpent gradually (in the course of being pulled up) was dragged towards the sandy bottom’, while Kock (NN §219), followed by Turville-Petre (1976, 5), combines lá vilgi slakr at sandi and rakðisk á Eynæfis ǫndri ‘[the fishing line] lay by no means slack upon the sand [when Jǫrmungandr] unwound himself upon Eynæfir’s ski’. — [3] á ǫndri Eynæfis ‘on the ski of Eynæfir <sea-king> [SHIP]’: The same ship-kenning occurs in Anon Krm 11/3VIII (Ragn). See also Þul Sækonunga 2/1 and Note there. — [4] Jǫrmungandr: A name for the World Serpent, Miðgarðsormr, occurring in Vsp 50/3, probably meaning ‘The powerful staff’; cf. LP: gandr 1, jǫrmungandr; LT: iǫrmun-gandr. — [4] at sandi ‘on the sand’: Understood here as the sand of the sea-floor not the sea-shore.
Use the buttons at the top of the page to navigate between stanzas in a poem.
The text and translation are given here, with buttons to toggle whether the text is shown in the verse order or prose word order. Clicking on indiviudal words gives dictionary links, variant readings, kennings and notes, where relevant.
This is the text of the edition in a similar format to how the edition appears in the printed volumes.
This view is also used for chapters and other text segments. Not all the headings shown are relevant to such sections.