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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Bragi Frag 4^III

Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Bragi inn gamli Boddason, Fragments 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. 59.

Bragi inn gamli Boddason Fragments

Þars ‘It is there’

(not checked:)
þar (adv.): there

sem ‘as’

(not checked:)
sem (conj.): as, which

[1] sem: er W

notes

[1] sem ‘as’: The force of sem in the clause is not clear; Skj B understands it as som om ‘as if’, but one would then expect a subj. (líti) and not an indic. verb (líta). The probable meaning of the whole clause is also obscure: ‘there’, wherever that is, it is as men see Sleipnir.

lofðar ‘men’

(not checked:)
lofði (noun m.; °; -ar): man

líta ‘see’

(not checked:)
líta (verb): look, see; appear

lung ‘the longship’

(not checked:)
lung (noun n.): longship

kennings

lung váfaðar Gungnis.
‘the longship of the swinger of Gungnir.’
= HORSE = Sleipnir
the swinger of Gungnir. → Óðinn
the longship of ÓÐINN → HORSE = Sleipnir

notes

[2] lung ‘the longship’: Here presumed to be the base-word of a horse-kenning. From Lat. [navis] longa, probably via OIr. long (Falk 1912, 89; Jesch 2001a, 123; see also Note to Þul Skipa 2/7). Lungr occurs as a horse-name in Anon Þorgþ I 1/7 and Þul Hesta 2/4 and (possibly) in an obscure fragment attributed to Egill Skallagrímsson (Egill Frag), cited in TGT (TGT 1884, 86) in the same chapter as Bragi’s couplet (it also includes a reference to Gungnir). Horse-kennings are rare in skaldic poetry, the only comparable example being Sigv Frag 2/3 knǫrr rastar ‘the ship of the league’. Both these kennings invert the common metaphor ‘horse of the sea’ for ‘ship’; see Note to Sigv Frag 2/3.

váfaðar ‘of the swinger’

(not checked:)
Váfuðr (noun m.): Váfuðr

kennings

lung váfaðar Gungnis.
‘the longship of the swinger of Gungnir.’
= HORSE = Sleipnir
the swinger of Gungnir. → Óðinn
the longship of ÓÐINN → HORSE = Sleipnir

notes

[2] váfaðar ‘of the swinger’: Váfuðr (or vafǫðr, so Vsp 1/5 in Hb, NK 1 n.), from váfa ‘move, swing [to and fro]’ is a name for Óðinn (see Note to Þul Óðins 5/7); cf. Eskál Lv 1ab/1, 4^{I, V} veig Váfaðar ‘the drink of Váfuðr [POETRY]’, elsewhere a name for the wind (Alv 20/2, same verse cited in Skm, SnE 1998, I, 90, and 146 n.). Here, however, the kenning becomes awkward if Váfuðr is regarded as a proper name, as it has to form a base-word with a second proper name, Gungnir, as determinant; rather, it appears to be used in its etymological sense but with reference to Óðinn, as the owner of Gungnir.

váfaðar ‘of the swinger’

(not checked:)
Váfuðr (noun m.): Váfuðr

kennings

lung váfaðar Gungnis.
‘the longship of the swinger of Gungnir.’
= HORSE = Sleipnir
the swinger of Gungnir. → Óðinn
the longship of ÓÐINN → HORSE = Sleipnir

notes

[2] váfaðar ‘of the swinger’: Váfuðr (or vafǫðr, so Vsp 1/5 in Hb, NK 1 n.), from váfa ‘move, swing [to and fro]’ is a name for Óðinn (see Note to Þul Óðins 5/7); cf. Eskál Lv 1ab/1, 4^{I, V} veig Váfaðar ‘the drink of Váfuðr [POETRY]’, elsewhere a name for the wind (Alv 20/2, same verse cited in Skm, SnE 1998, I, 90, and 146 n.). Here, however, the kenning becomes awkward if Váfuðr is regarded as a proper name, as it has to form a base-word with a second proper name, Gungnir, as determinant; rather, it appears to be used in its etymological sense but with reference to Óðinn, as the owner of Gungnir.

Gungnis ‘of Gungnir’

(not checked:)
2. Gungnir (noun m.): Gungnir

kennings

lung váfaðar Gungnis.
‘the longship of the swinger of Gungnir.’
= HORSE = Sleipnir
the swinger of Gungnir. → Óðinn
the longship of ÓÐINN → HORSE = Sleipnir

notes

[2] Gungnis ‘of Gungnir <Óðinn’s spear>’: The name of Óðinn’s spear, forged by some dwarfs and later given to Óðinn by Loki (SnE 1998, I, 41-2).

Gungnis ‘of Gungnir’

(not checked:)
2. Gungnir (noun m.): Gungnir

kennings

lung váfaðar Gungnis.
‘the longship of the swinger of Gungnir.’
= HORSE = Sleipnir
the swinger of Gungnir. → Óðinn
the longship of ÓÐINN → HORSE = Sleipnir

notes

[2] Gungnis ‘of Gungnir <Óðinn’s spear>’: The name of Óðinn’s spear, forged by some dwarfs and later given to Óðinn by Loki (SnE 1998, I, 41-2).

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

See Introduction. The couplet is introduced in the following words (text of A, minor variation in W): Sincopa tekr íbrott staf eða samstǫfu ór miðju orði, sem Bragi hinn gamli qvað ‘Syncope takes away a letter or a syllable from the middle of a word, as Bragi the old said’. Björn Magnússon Ólsen (TGT 1884, 87 n. 5) observes that Óláfr seems to have thought of þar es as a single word.

The original context of the stanza of which this couplet presumably formed part is unknown. The reference to a place where men see a representation of Óðinn’s eight-legged horse Sleipnir may indicate that the stanza was part of an ekphrasis; alternatively there may have been a constellation of stars thought to represent Sleipnir. Depictions of a figure presumed to be Óðinn, carrying a spear and sometimes accompanied by birds (probably his ravens) astride an apparently eight-legged horse appear on several Gotland picture stones, though this interpretation has been questioned (cf. Simek 1993, 124, 293-4).

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