Eil Þdr 7^III

Þar í mǫrk fyrir markar
málhvettan byr settu
(né hvélvǫlur Hallar
háfs) skotnaðra (svôfu).
Knátti, hreggi hǫggvin*,
hlymþél við mǫl glymja,
en fellihryn fjalla
Feðju þaut með steðja.

Þar settu {skotnaðra} í {mǫrk háfs} fyrir {málhvettan byr markar}; né svôfu {hvélvǫlur Hallar}. {Hlymþél} knátti glymja við mǫl, en {hreggi hǫggvin* fellihryn fjalla} þaut með {steðja Feðju}.

There they set {shot-adders} [SPEARS] in {the borderland of the fish trap} [RIVER] against {the chattering wind of the borderland} [RIVER]; {the wheel-knuckles of Hǫll <river>} [STONES] did not sleep. {The din-file} [SPEAR] resounded against the gravel, and {the storm-blasted toppling-noise of the mountains} [RIVER] roared against {the anvil of Fedje <river>} [ROCK].

Mss: R(24v), Tˣ(25v), W(53) (SnE)

Readings: [2] ‑hvettan: ‘hueican’ Tˣ;    byr: bur Tˣ, W    [3] Hallar: so W, ‘halar’ R, Tˣ    [4] háfs: haf all    [5] Knátti: ‘knatt’ Tˣ;    hǫggvin*: hǫgvinn all

Editions: Skj AI, 149, Skj BI, 140, Skald I, 77, NN §§447, 448; SnE 1848-87, I, 294-5, III, 29, SnE 1931, 108, SnE 1998, I, 27.

Context: See Context to st. 1.

Notes: [1, 4] í mǫrk háfs ‘in the borderland of the fish trap [RIVER]’: Although mǫrk in Old Norse usually means ‘forest’ or ‘wasteland’ (Fritzner: mörk), the original meaning is ‘borderland’ (cf. Goth. marka ‘border’, OE mearc ‘border, district’, OS marca ‘border, borderland’; see AEW: mǫrk). Háfs is an emendation of ‘haf’ (all mss). The omission of the ending ‑s could have been caused by the initial s- in the next word. Earlier interpretations (Finnur Jónsson 1900b, 383; Guðmundur Finnbogason 1924, 176; Davidson 1983, 590) avoid emendation by assuming tmesis háfmǫrk. The present edn emends because tmesis between l. 1 and l. 4 should rather be avoided. Another possibility is to interpret í mǫrk as ‘in the ground’ (NN §447; Reichardt 1948, 350) which could be justified by assuming a semantic development from ‘borderland’ to ‘land, ground’. That results in problems within the last line, however. Kock (NN §447) construes háf skotnaðra ‘the fish trap of the spear’ without explaining what that means. Reichardt (1948, 349-50) combines háfs with markar (l. 1) to byr markar háfs ‘the storm of the ground of the fish trap [RIVER]’, referring to the roaring current. However, this interpretation results in a three-part l. 4. — [1, 2] byr markar ‘the wind of the borderland [RIVER]’: Although byrr, the base-word of this kenning, means ‘wind, favourable breeze’, the context shows that a river rushing through a ravine is most likely intended (see also Note to l. 7). — [1, 2, 4] settu skotnaðra í mǫrk háfs ‘they set shot-adders [SPEARS] in the borderland of the fish trap [RIVER]’: On spear-kennings with the base-word ‘snake’, see Meissner 146. Þórr and his companion used their weapons to prop themselves up against the force of the river. — [2] málhvettan ‘chattering’: Lit. ‘speech-whetted’. This must be a metaphor for the roaring of a river; cf. Davidson (1983, 590), who points to river-heiti that consist of words for ‘storm’, ‘thunder’ or ‘tempest’. Hvettr is taken here as p. p. of the weak verb hvetja ‘sharpen, encourage’, as a parallel, umlauted form of the expected hvattr (ANG §428.2; see Reichardt 1948, 349). Other interpretations: (a) Guðmundur Finnbogason (1924, 176) construes the cpd as málhveptan which, according to him, means ‘speaking pine-trees’. (b) Finnur Jónsson (1900b, 383; Skj B; LP: málhvettr), emends hvettan R, W (‘hveican’ Tˣ) to ‑hvettar and derives it from an ON *hvetta ‘knock over’ (cf. New Norw. kvetta, see Torp 1963, 348). According to him, this p. p. qualifies the stones (-vǫlur) that make noises when knocked. Because of the emendation, the overly complex word order and the assumption that ‑vǫlur means ‘stones’, that suggestion is unlikely. (c) Kock (NN §447, followed by Kiil 1956, 112) connects málhvettan m. acc. sg. with bur markar (so mss Tˣ and W), understood as a Þórr-kenning (‘son of the earth’; cf. sonr Jarðar ‘son of Jǫrð (= earth)’ in Þjóð Haustl 14/6), and he translates málhvettan as ‘urged to meet’. Aside from the fact that mǫrk ‘forest, terrain, ground’ is never attested in skaldic poetry as a heiti for Jǫrð, Þórr’s mother, Kock’s suggestion, ‘they set their spears in the ground before Þórr’, makes no sense in the context. — [3] hvélvǫlur Hallar ‘the wheel-knuckles of Hǫll <river> [STONES]’: Hvél- ‘wheel’ refers to the round shape of pebbles, and the second element, ‑vǫlur, is nom. pl. of vala f. ‘bone, knuckle’. Hvélvǫlur (so NN §447; Guðmundur Finnbogason 1924, 176; Kiil 1956, 112-13) cannot mean ‘stones’ by itself and needs a determinant. This edn follows Reichardt (1948, 350) who interprets ‘hallar’ (so W) as gen. of the river-name Hǫll (Grí 27). — [5, 6] knátti glymja ‘resounded’: Knátti is pleonastic and left untranslated here. — [6] hlymþél ‘the din-file [SPEAR]’: The base-word þél ‘file’ is otherwise found only in sword-kennings. In this context, however, it clearly refers to spears; the wayfarers use them to lean on (Meissner 144); Davidson (1983, 592), on the other hand, regards hlymþél as referring to the river itself. — [7] fellihryn fjalla ‘the toppling-noise of the montains [RIVER]’: Hryn ‘noise’ is attested neither as a simplex nor as the base-word of a kenning, but the word occurs frequently as the first element of compounds. In these instances the noun hryn- means ‘noise, din, flow, rush’ (cf. the related verb hrynja ‘fall down loudly’). Felli- ‘felling, toppling’ probably refers to the power of the water which threatens to knock the waders off their feet. Here, as in byr markar ‘wind of the forest’ (see Note to ll. 1, 2), the meaning ‘river’ must be inferred from the context. — [8] steðja Feðju ‘the anvil of Fedje <river> [STONE]’: Fedje is a river in south-west Norway (cf. Olsen 1907, 94-5). Clunies Ross (1981, 375) regards steðja Feðju as ‘a kenning for Vimur’s vulva, against which in the aggressive confrontation of male and female powers, Þórr and Þjálfi place their “noise-files” (hlymþél) or staves, which clang against the river’s stony bed’. However, this is somewhat inconsistent with the second part of the helmingr, which describes fellihryn fjalla ‘the toppling-noise of the mountains’ (l. 7), i.e. the river, roaring against the ‘anvil of Fedje <river> [ROCK]’ and not against the spear (hlymþél ‘din-file’, l. 6).

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. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
8. 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.
9. Clunies Ross, Margaret. 1981. ‘An Interpretation of the Myth of Þórr’s Encounter with Geirrøðr and his Daughters’. In Dronke et al. 1981, 370-91.
10. ANG = Noreen, Adolf. 1923. Altnordische Grammatik I: Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer. 1st edn. 1884. 5th unrev. edn. 1970. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
11. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
12. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
13. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
14. Davidson, Daphne L. 1983. ‘Earl Hákon and his Poets’. D. Phil. thesis. Oxford.
15. Torp, Alf. 1963. Nynorsk etymologisk ordbok. Oslo: Aschehoug.
16. Finnur Jónsson. 1900b. ‘Þórsdrápa Eilífs Goðrúnarsonar’. Oversigt over det Kgl. Danske videnskabernes selskabs forhandlinger 1900, 369-410.
17. Kiil, Vilhelm. 1956. ‘Eilífr Goðrúnarson’s Þórsdrápa’. ANF 71, 89-167.
18. Reichardt, Konstantin. 1948. ‘Die Thórsdrápa des Eilífr Goðrúnarson: Textinterpretation’. PMLA 63, 329-91.
19. Guðmundur Finnbogason. 1924. ‘Um Þórsdrápu. Nokkrar athugasemdir’. Skírnir, 172-81.
20. Olsen, Magnus. 1907. ‘Elvenavnene Fǫð, *Feð og önavnet Feðjar’. ANF 23, 90-7.
21. Internal references
22. Not published: do not cite ()
23. Elena Gurevich 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Jarðar heiti’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 877. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3209> (accessed 25 April 2024)
24. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Þjóðólfr ór Hvini, Haustlǫng 14’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 453.