Bragi Frag 6^III

Þann áttak vin verstan
vazt- rǫdd en mér baztan
Ála -undirkúlu
óniðraðan þriðja.

Áttak þann vin þriðja óniðraðan, verstan {rǫdd {Ála {vazt-undirkúlu}}} en baztan mér.

I had that friend, the third one, blameless, worst {to the voice {of the Áli <sea-king> {of the fishing ground-under-knob}}} [ROCK > GIANT > GOLD], but best to me.

Mss: R(28v), Tˣ(29v), W(73), U(31r) (SnE)

Readings: [1] verstan: so all others, ‘vierstan’ changed in scribal hand from ‘vistrstan’ R    [2] vazt rǫdd: ‘vatzravðla’ R, ‘vazraud’ Tˣ, ‘uaz rodd’ W, ‘[…]atzt rodd’ U;    en: ok U    [4] óniðraðan: so Tˣ, W, ‘oniþioþan’ R, ‘o[…]þiaþan’ U

Editions: Skj AI, 5, Skj BI, 5, Skald I, 3, NN §222; SnE 1848-87, I, 350-1, II, 320-1, III, 58, SnE 1931, 126, SnE 1998, I, 44.

Context: See Introduction to Frag 5-6 above. In the prose both before and after this stanza Snorri directs the reader’s or listener’s interpretation. He states at the beginning: Hér má þat heyra at kallat er orð eða rǫdd jǫtna gullit, svá sem fyrr er sagt. Svá kvað Bragi skáld ‘Here one may hear that gold is called the words or voice of giants, as has been said above. Thus spoke the poet Bragi’. Snorri’s previous reference to this kenning-type comes near the beginning of Skm (SnE 1998, I, 3), right at the end of his narrative about the giant Þjazi. Here he has the deity Bragi explain that the family of this giant was very wealthy and was in the habit of dividing their inheritance by measuring it out in mouthfuls of gold; hence gold can be called the ‘mouth-count’ (munntal) or, by extension, the speech or voice of giants. After the stanza Snorri directs interpretation thus: Hann kallaði stein vazta undirkúlu – steinninn – en jǫtun Ála steinsins (reading of T^x, W), en gull rǫdd jǫtuns, ‘He called the rock the fishing grounds’ under-knob – the rock – and the giant the Áli of the rock, and gold the voice of the giant’.

Notes: [2] vazt- ‘the fishing ground-’: The scribes experienced considerable difficulty with this word and the following rǫdd ‘voice’, in spite of Snorri’s prose explanation. Although vazt is connected with undirkúlu (l. 3) by tmesis (see below), as the prose text makes clear, the scribes of R and Tˣ, at least, understood it to form a cpd with the immediately following word. The various ms. forms of the first element can probably be explained (so SnE 1998, I, 141 textual n.) as implying a first element vatns- < vatn ‘water’. However, both the prose gloss and the probability of aðalhending (vazt /bazt-) favour the lectio difficilior vazt < vǫzt (or vǫst) f. (pl. vaztir) ‘fishing ground’, by extension ‘sea’ (so LP: vǫst; SnE 1998, II, 432). — [2, 3] rǫdd Ála ‘the voice of Áli <sea-king> [GOLD]’: A kenning for ‘gold’ formed against the mythological background indicated by Snorri’s prose text. Áli is elsewhere given as the name for a variety of supernatural beings and humans of the prehistoric period (cf. LP: Áli; SnE 1998, II, 443). Connection with a sea-king of this name (cf. SnE 1998, I, 109 and Note to Þul Sækonunga 1/2) seems most likely here. Kock (NN §222) argues that ála is gen. pl. of áll ‘deep narrow channel in sea or river’ and that undirkúlu ála ‘under-knob of channels’ is a kenning concealing the name Steinn ‘Stone’ for Bragi’s unnamed friend. — [2] rǫdd ‘the voice’: The majority mss and the prose context indicate rǫdd is to be preferred over R’s rǫðli < rǫðull ‘wheel, disk’, as do metrical considerations. However, Skald adopts the cpd vatzrǫðli ‘water-sun [GOLD]’, construing it with l. 1 áttak þann vin verstan vatzrǫðli ‘I had that friend worst to water-sun [GOLD]’. — [3] -undirkúlu ‘-under-knob’: The second element of a cpd separated by tmesis from its first element vazt (l. 2). The whole cpd forms a kenning for a rock.

References

1. Bibliography
2. SnE 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
6. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
7. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
8. Internal references
9. (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=112> (accessed 25 April 2024)
10. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Sækonunga heiti 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. 678.