Anon Bjark 3III
Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Poems, Bjarkamál in fornu 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. 499.
Hniginn ‘sunk’
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hníga (verb): sink, fall < hníga (verb): sink, fall
s ‘has’
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2. er (conj.): who, which, when < hníga (verb): sink, fall
í ‘into’
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í (prep.): in, into
hadd ‘the hair’
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haddr (noun m.; °; -ar): [hair]
kennings
hadd jarðar.‘the hair of the earth. ’
= GRASS
the hair of the earth. → GRASS
notes
[1] hadd jarðar ‘the hair of the earth [GRASS]’: Cf. Meissner 89. Kennings for ‘grass’ compared to hair are uncommon and all those extant date from the C14th.; cf. Snjólfr V 1/2IV í föx jarðar ‘into the mane of the earth’ and Arngr Gd 25/3IV and 44/1IV, a poem that dates itself to 1345. Cf. the Prologue to SnE (SnE 2005, 3) where it is said that the inhabitants of the world who had lost knowledge of their creator compared the grass of the earth to the hair and feathers of animals and birds.
jarðar ‘of the earth’
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jǫrð (noun f.; °jarðar, dat. -u; jarðir/jarðar(DN I (1367) 304)): ground, earth
kennings
hadd jarðar.‘the hair of the earth. ’
= GRASS
the hair of the earth. → GRASS
notes
[1] hadd jarðar ‘the hair of the earth [GRASS]’: Cf. Meissner 89. Kennings for ‘grass’ compared to hair are uncommon and all those extant date from the C14th.; cf. Snjólfr V 1/2IV í föx jarðar ‘into the mane of the earth’ and Arngr Gd 25/3IV and 44/1IV, a poem that dates itself to 1345. Cf. the Prologue to SnE (SnE 2005, 3) where it is said that the inhabitants of the world who had lost knowledge of their creator compared the grass of the earth to the hair and feathers of animals and birds.
Hrólfr ‘Hrólfr’
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Hrolfr (noun m.): [Hrólfr, Hrólf]
inn ‘the’
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2. inn (art.): the
stórláti ‘Munificent’
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stórlátr (adj.): [Munificent]
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In mss of LaufE this fragment is introduced as an example of heiti and kennings for ‘grass’ and said to be from Bjark. The kenning is given in the prose text as fax jarðarinnar ‘mane of the earth’.
Assuming this pair of lines belongs to Bjark, it presumably comes from a section describing King Hrólfr kraki’s last stand and death.
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