Eil Þdr 18^III

svát hraðskyndir handa
hrapmunnum svalg gunnar
lyptisylg á lopti
langvinr síu þrǫngvar,
þás ǫrþrasis eisa
ós Hrímnis fló drósar
til þrámóðnis Þrúðar
þjósts af greipar brjósti.

svát {hraðskyndir gunnar}, {langvinr þrǫngvar}, svalg {lyptisylg síu} á lopti {hrapmunnum handa}, þás ós eisa þjósts {ǫrþrasis {drósar Hrímnis}} fló af {brjósti greipar} til {þrámóðnis Þrúðar}.

so that {the swift hastener of battle} [WARRIOR = Þórr], {the old friend of the tight spot (þjálfi ‘enclosure’ = Þjálfi)} [= Þórr], swallowed {the raised drink of the spark} [PIECE OF IRON] in the air {with the hurried mouths of his arms} [HANDS], when the sparking fire of anger {of the passionate lover {of the lady of Hrímnir <giant>}} [GIANTESS > GIANT = Geirrøðr] flew from {the breast of the grip} [HAND] at {the one longing for Þrúðr <goddess>} [= Þórr].

Mss: R(25r), Tˣ(25v), W(53) (SnE)

Readings: [1] hrað‑: om. W    [2] hrap‑: hrapp‑ W;    ‑munnum: munnar W    [3] lypti‑: so Tˣ, W, ‘sypti’ R    [4] langvinr síu: so Tˣ, W, síu langvinr R    [5] ‑þrasis: ‘‑þvrsis’ R, þrasir Tˣ, W;    eisa: eisu R, Tˣ, esju W    [6] ós: so Tˣ, ás R, W    [8] þjósts: þjóst all

Editions: Skj AI, 151, Skj BI, 143, Skald I, 78, NN §2252; SnE 1848-87, I, 300-1, III, 36-7, SnE 1931, 109, SnE 1998, I, 29.

Context: See Context to st. 1.

Notes: [1] svát ‘so that’: The stanza continues without interruption from the previous one. — [1, 2] hraðskyndir gunnar ‘the swift hastener of battle [WARRIOR = Þórr]’: This is another instance in which Þórr is referred to by a warrior-kenning (see Introduction); the apposition langvinr þrǫngvar ‘the old friend of the tight spot (þjálfi ‘enclosure’ = Þjálfi) [= Þórr]’ (see Note to l. 4 below) clarifies it as a designation for Þórr. — [1-2, 3, 4] svalg lyptisylg síu … hrapmunnum handa ‘swallowed the raised drink of the spark [PIECE OF IRON] … with the hurried mouths of his arms [HANDS]’: This stanza continues the food metaphors from the previous stanzas, which are expanded here into a drinking metaphor for Þórr’s and Geirrøðr’s fighting it out with red-hot iron. The metaphor encompasses the verb ‘swallowed’ for ‘caught, parried’ as well as the instr. dat. hrapmunnum ‘with the hurried mouths’. The metaphorical quality of the latter is extended by the determinant ‘of the arms’, resulting in a kenning for ‘hands’. The object of svalg ‘swallowed’, lyptisylg síu ‘raised drink of the spark [PIECE OF IRON]’ adds to the metaphorical dimension. Lyptisylg refers to a raised, filled drinking cup (Kiil 1956, 153). — [4] langvinr þrǫngvar ‘the old friend of the tight spot (þjálfi ‘enclosure’ = Þjálfi) [= Þórr]’: Unlike other eds, who have interpreted this Þórr-kenning as ‘friend of Freyja’ (see below), the assumption here is that þrǫngvar is an onomastic play on one of the names of the persons involved: þrǫng f. means ‘tight spot, narrowing’ (LP: þrǫng 2) and it is synonymous with þjálfi ‘sth. that encloses and holds together’ (LP: 2. þjalfi). The latter in turn is homophonous with the name of Þórr’s servant Þjálfi, who is with him on this journey. Hence Þórr is referred to periphrastically here as ‘friend of Þjálfi’. For Þjálfi see st. 10/4 and Note there. Sveinbjörn Egilsson (1851, 23) takes þrǫngvar to be Þrúngva, an alleged name for the goddess Freyja found in the þulur (Þul Ásynja 3/4); the mss, however, have ‘þungra’ or ‘þrungra’, which Finnur Jónsson emends to Þrungva (Skj B, 661). Even though the gen. form of the name Þrungva cannot possibly be Þrǫngvar, the resulting interpretation of ‘old friend of Freyja’ as a periphrasis for Þórr has been adopted by most subsequent eds. Þórr is nowhere depicted as a friend of Freyja, however. — [5-8]: This helmingr refers to the two opponents, Þórr and Geirrøðr, with kennings containing the analogous base-words ǫrþrasir ‘passionate lover’ and þrámóðnir ‘desirer’. Whereas a giant being called the lover of a giantess follows a common kenning pattern, there are no comparable Þórr-kennings that refer to him as the lover of any goddess. The Þrúðr named in the kenning is Þórr’s daughter, who was allegedly kidnapped by the giant Hrungnir; cf. the Hrungnir-kenning þjófr Þrúðar ‘the thief of Þrúðr’ in Bragi Rdr 1/3, 4 and Note (see also Reichardt 1948, 382; LP: þrámóðnir); hence Þórr can be paraphrased as ‘the one longing for Þrúðr’. — [5] ǫrþrasis ‘of the passionate lover’: In Old Norse this word is only attested here. The meaning of the cpd can be explained by its etymology and its use as a base-word in a giant-kenning. It is formed from the adj. ǫrr ‘swift’ or ‘generous’ and the agent noun þrasir, derived from the weak verb þrasa ‘race along’ (Þrasir is also a name of a dwarf in st. 19/4 and in Þul Dverga 4/8); hence the meaning of ǫrþrasir could be ‘the swift racing one’. In the present stanza, ǫrþrasir is the base-word in a giant-kenning and has a kenning for ‘giantess’ (drósar Hrímnis ‘of the lady of Hrímnir <giant>’) as a determinant; it is therefore likely that the whole kenning belongs to the kenning pattern ‘lover, husband etc. of a giantess’ (Meissner 256). Hence ǫrþrasir has been translated here as ‘passionate lover’ (cf. LP: ǫrþrasir). — [5-6] ós eisa ‘the sparking fire’: The mss’ eisu (R, Tˣ; esju W) has been emended to eisa nom. because it is the subject of the sentence (Finnur Jónsson 1900b, 396). The adj. óss is not attested in Old Norse, but New Norw. os means ‘crackling, sparking’ (Aasen 2003: os adj. 1.). — [8] þjósts ‘of anger’: The mss’ þjóst has mostly been interpreted as a dat. (nom. þjóstr) and translated as ‘in anger’ or ‘out of anger’ (Kock, NN §2252), but the dat. of þjóstr is þjósti. Kock (ibid.) assumes that the ‑i could have been dropped during recitation; however, such an elision (þjósti af) is not possible in this metrical position. Sveinbjörn Egilsson (1851, 31) suggested a cpd þjóstbrjósti ‘out of an angry mind’ (tmesis), which is unlikely, because brjósti must be combined with greipar ‘of the grip’ to form the kenning brjósti greipar ‘the breast of the grip [HAND]’. The simplest solution is to emend þjóst acc. to þjósts gen. and combine it with eisa ‘fire’.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. 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.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
7. 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.
8. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
9. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
10. Aasen 2003 = Kruken, Kristoffer and Terje Aarset, eds. 2003. Ivar Aasen: Norsk ordbog med dansk forklaring. New edition. Originally published 1873. Oslo: Det norske samlaget.
11. Finnur Jónsson. 1900b. ‘Þórsdrápa Eilífs Goðrúnarsonar’. Oversigt over det Kgl. Danske videnskabernes selskabs forhandlinger 1900, 369-410.
12. Kiil, Vilhelm. 1956. ‘Eilífr Goðrúnarson’s Þórsdrápa’. ANF 71, 89-167.
13. Reichardt, Konstantin. 1948. ‘Die Thórsdrápa des Eilífr Goðrúnarson: Textinterpretation’. PMLA 63, 329-91.
14. Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 1851. Tvö brot af Haustlaung og Þórsdrápa. Reykjavík: Prentað á kostnað skólasjóðsins.
15. Internal references
16. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Ásynja heiti 3’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 768.
17. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Dverga heiti 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. 699.
18. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Bragi inn gamli Boddason, Ragnarsdrápa 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. 28.