Gamlkan Has 64^VII

Létum hróðr, þanns heitir
Harmsól, fetilkjóla
fyr hugprúða hríðar
herðendr borinn verða.
Mér biði hverr, es heyrir,
heimspenni, brag þenna,
œski-Þrór ok eirar
unnrǫðla miskunnar.

Létum hróðr, þanns heitir Harmsól, verða borinn fyr {hugprúða herðendr {hríðar {fetilkjóla}}}. {Hverr œski-Þrór {unnrǫðla}}, es heyrir þenna brag, biði mér {heimspenni} miskunnar ok eirar.

We [I] caused the praise-poem, which is called ‘Harmsól’, to be borne before {strong-minded hardeners {of the storm {of strap-ships}}} [SHIELDS > BATTLE > WARRIORS]. May {each craving-Þrór <= Óðinn> {of wave-suns}} [GOLD > MAN] who hears this poem, ask {the world-clasper} [= God] for mercy and compassion for me.

Mss: B(13v), 399a-bˣ

Readings: [1] þanns: þann B    [2] fetilkjóla: ‘fe[...]l kiosa’ B, ‘fe(ti)lkiosa’(?) 399a‑bˣ, ‘fæ[...](i)l kiosa’(?) BRydberg, ‘fe (ti)l kiosa’(?) BFJ    [6] þenna: so 399a‑bˣ, ‘þenn[...]’ B

Editions: Skj AI, 571, Skj BI, 564-5, Skald I, 274, NN §2114; Sveinbjörn Egilsson 1844, 33-4; Kempff 1867, 19, Rydberg 1907, 31-2, Black 1971, 298, Attwood 1996a, 238.

Notes: [2] fetilkjóla ‘of strap-ships’: Although the ms. is very badly worn, all previous eds concur that the second element is kjósa, and they follow the 399a-bˣ copyist in reconstructing the first element as fetil. Sveinbjörn Egilsson’s emendation to fetilkjóla (1844, 33 n. 81), which provides an expected aðalhending, is adopted here, though not without reservation. The interpretation of this cpd presents considerable difficulties. It is clear from the remainder of the man-kenning herðendr ‘hardeners’ and hríðar ‘of the storm’ (ll. 3-4), that an expression for a weapon of some kind is required. Fetill designates a strap or belt, and is often used specifically of a sword-belt or a shield-strap (Fritzner: fetill). Sveinbjörn Egilsson (1844, 33 n. 81) resolves this, by a transfer of meaning (pars pro toto), as a heiti for ‘sword’. Finnur Jónsson (LP: fetilhjól) regards the ms. reading as meaningless, and emends the second element of the cpd to fetilhjól ‘strap-wheel’, a shield-heiti. Kock (NN §2114) dismisses this emendation as providing an excess of alliteration on the <h>, interpreting fetilkjóll ‘strap-ship [SHIELD]’ (ON kjóll a kind of large ship, cognate with OE ceol). This he derives from a lost myth of the ship of the Norse god Ullr, possibly involving Ullr’s use of a shield as a boat. There is no doubt that several instances of the use of the phrase ‘Ullr’s ship’ as shield-kennings are listed in SnE (1998, I, 43 (verse 143/3 Ullar kjóll attributed to Eyvindr skáldaspillir, Eyv Lv 9^I), 67 (Skjǫldr er ok kallaðr skip Ullar ‘a shield is also called Ullr’s ship’) and 69 (verse 236/2 Ullar skip, probably from ÞjóðA Frag 3/2^II). Whether a word for ‘ship’, without explicit reference to the god Ullr, was an acceptable element in shield-kennings remains an open question, though the cpd fetilkjóll has been understood here to fit into this pattern. Louis-Jensen (2003, 317-18) doubts whether a ship-word without reference to Ullr can give a shield-kenning. She argues that the cpd is more likely to be a sword-kenning, and proposes emendation to fetilnjóla, a cpd in which the second element -njóli (found only in compounds in ON) has the basic sense of ‘stem, stalk’. — [2] Harmsól: Lit. ‘sorrow-sun’. The title of the poem draws together many of its central themes. Harmsól may be taken as a kenning for Christ, whose harmr ‘pain, injury’ is the subject of the poem’s central meditation, and who is apostrophised throughout the poem in kennings referring to his mastery of the weather and his lordship over the heavenly halls of the sun. At another level, the poem itself, as a public act of penance and a meditation on the grace of God, has acted as a ‘sun’, dissipating the clouds of the poet’s own harmr ‘sorrow’, his grief and shame at his own sinfulness. See further Paasche 1914a, 116-18. — [7] œski-Þrór ‘craving-Þrór’: That is, each man who craves wave-suns, i.e. gold. Þrór is listed as a heiti for Óðinn in Gylf (SnE 1982, 22). Although it occurs rather infrequently in man-kennings, (LP: Þrór), it is interesting to compare the warrior-kenning Þrós þingveljandi ‘decider of Þrór’s assembly’ in Pl 49/3-4.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. 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.
5. Attwood, Katrina. 1996a. ‘The Poems of MS AM 757a 4to: An Edition and Contextual Study’. Ph.D. thesis. University of Leeds.
6. Black, Elizabeth L. 1971. ‘Harmsól: an edition’. B. Litt. thesis. University of Oxford.
7. Rydberg, Hugo, ed. 1907. ‘Die geistlichen Drápur und Dróttkvættfragmente des Cod. AM 757 4to.’. Ph.D. thesis. University of Lund. Copenhagen: Møller.
8. 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.
9. Kempff, Hjalmar, ed. 1867. Kaniken Gamles ‘Harmsól’ (Sol i Sorgen): isländskt andligt qväde från medeltiden med öfversättning och förklaringar. Uppsala: Edquist & Berglund.
10. Louis-Jensen, Jonna. 2003. ‘Småstykker’. Opuscula 11, 316-20. BA 42. Copenhagen: Reitzel.
11. Paasche, Fredrik. 1914. Kristendom og kvad: En studie i norrøn middelalder. Christiania (Oslo): Aschehoug. Rpt. in Paasche 1948, 29-212.
12. SnE 1982 = Snorri Sturluson. 1982. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. Oxford: Clarendon. Rpt. 1988. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
13. Sveinbjörn Egilsson, ed. 1844. Fjøgur gømul kvæði. Boðsrit til að hlusta á þá opinberu yfirheyrslu í Bessastaða Skóla þann 22-29 mai 1844. Viðeyar Klaustri: prentuð af Helga Helgasyni, á kostnað Bessastaða Skóla. Bessastaðir: Helgi Helgason.
14. Internal references
15. Edith Marold 2017, ‘Snorra Edda (Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál)’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].
16. (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning’ 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=113> (accessed 24 April 2024)
17. Jonna Louis-Jensen and Tarrin Wills (eds) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Plácitusdrápa 49’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 211-12.
18. Russell Poole (ed.) 2012, ‘Eyvindr skáldaspillir Finnsson, Lausavísur 9’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 228.
19. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, Fragments 3’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 161-2.