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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Eil Þdr 8III

Edith Marold (ed.) 2017, ‘Eilífr Goðrúnarson, Þórsdrápa 8’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 91.

Eilífr GoðrúnarsonÞórsdrápa
789

text and translation

Harðvaxnar leit herðar
hallands of sik falla
(gatat maðr) njótr (in neytri)
njarð- (rôð fyr sér) -gjarðar.
Þverrir lét, nema þyrri
Þorns barna sér, Mǫrnar
snerriblóð, til svíra
salþaks megin vaxa.

{Njótr njarðgjarðar} leit {harðvaxnar herðar {hallands}} falla of sik; maðr gatat in neytri rôð fyr sér. {Þverrir {barna Þorns}} lét megin vaxa sér til svíra {salþaks}, nema {snerriblóð Mǫrnar} þyrri.
 
‘The user of the strength-belt [= Þórr] saw the hard-grown shoulders of the sloping-land [MOUNTAIN > ROCKS] fall around him; the man could not find a useful solution for himself. The diminisher of the children of Þorn <giant> [GIANTS > = Þórr] said that his strength would grow to the neck of the roof of the earth [SKY] unless the rushing blood of Mǫrn <female mythical being> [RIVER] receded.

notes and context

See Context to st. 1.

[5-8]: There are two ways to interpret these lines. (a) Þverrir barna Þorns lét megin vaxa sér til svíra salþaks, nema snerriblóð Mǫrnar þyrri ‘The diminisher of the children of Þorn <giant> [GIANTS > = Þórr] said that his strength would grow to the neck of the roof of the earth [SKY] unless the rushing blood of Mǫrn <female mythical being> [RIVER] receded’. The advantages of this interpretation, which is adopted in the present edn, are that it is largely faithful to the word order of the stanza and contains no metrical violations. The river-kenning snerriblóð Mǫrnar, however, still presents a problem (see Note below). (b) Þverrir barna Mǫrnar lét megin vaxa sér til salþaks, nema snerriblóð Þorns svíra þyrri ‘the diminisher of the children of Mǫrn <female mythical being> [GIANTS > = Þórr] said that his strength would grow to the roof of the earth [SKY] unless the rushing blood of the neck of Þorn <giant> [RIVER] receded’ (so Finnur Jónsson 1900b, 385; Skj B). The indubitable advantage of the latter interpretation is that the river-kenning snerriblóð Þorns matches the widespread kenning pattern ‘blood of the giant’. However, there are two reasons to discard it. First of all, svíra ‘of the neck’ is not a necessary part of the river-kenning and placing it in that kenning forces a three-part l. 7, isolating the prep. til. Further, the way l. 6 is split up violates the metre, which requires the sentence boundary to fall before Mǫrnar. — [5-8]: The content of this helmingr is corroborated by an eddic stanza which Snorri (SnE 1998, I, 25) quotes in his narrative of the myth. According to that stanza, Þórr addresses the river directly: Vaxattu nú, Vimurveiztu ef þú vex at þá vex mér ásmegin jafnhátt upp sem himinn ‘Do not grow now, Vimur … you know that if you grow, then the power of an Áss will rise up in me just as high as the sky’. The river-name Vimur is confirmed by a Þórr-kenning in ÚlfrU Húsdr 6/5-6, Víðgymnir vaðs Vimrar ‘the Víðgymnir <giant> of the ford of Vimur <river>’ (cf. additional examples in LP: Vimur.)

readings

sources

Text is based on reconstruction from the base text and variant apparatus and may contain alternative spellings and other normalisations not visible in the manuscript text. Transcriptions may not have been checked and should not be cited.

editions and texts

Skj: Eilífr Goðrúnarson, 2. Þórsdrápa 7: AI, 149, BI, 141, Skald I, 77, NN §§449, 450; SnE 1848-87, I, 294-5, III, 29-30, SnE 1931, 108, SnE 1998, I, 27.

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