Edith Marold (ed.) 2017, ‘Hofgarða-Refr Gestsson, Fragments 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. 259.
This helmingr (Refr Frag 1) is preserved in Skm (SnE) (mss R (main ms.), Tˣ, W, U, A, C) and in LaufE (2368ˣ), and it apparently deals with the amorous adventures of a young man. Finnur Jónsson’s (LH I, 600) suggestion that the stanza refers to Vagn Ákason of Jómsvíkinga saga and his love affair with Ingibjǫrg, the daughter of his opponent Þorkell leira ‘Clay’, lacks textual basis. Equally implausible are Faulkes’s (SnE 1998, I, 193) speculations that the helmingr might have a symbolic meaning: ‘The phrase gekk í meyjar sæing [‘went into the bed of the woman’] may be metaphorical if the woman concerned is symbolic (e.g. of death (= Hel) or battle (= Hildr …)’.
Gekk í golli stokkna
gjǫfrífr Hôars drífu
askr — viðr œrinn þroska
ǫs-Freyr — sæing meyjar.
{Gjǫfrífr askr {drífu Hôars}} gekk í golli stokkna sæing meyjar; {ǫs-Freyr} viðr œrinn þroska.
‘The gift-rash ash-tree of the snow-storm of Hárr <= Óðinn> [BATTLE > WARRIOR] went into the gold-adorned bed of the woman; the tumult-Freyr <god> [WARRIOR] performs plenty of manly deeds. ’
The helmingr is cited in Skm (SnE) and LaufE exemplifying the use of tree-names as base-words in kennings for ‘man’.
Skj B takes as-Freyr ‘the tumult-Freyr’ (on the choice of as- as the first element of the cpd, see Note to l. 4 below) as the subject of the main clause and askr drífu Hars ‘ash-tree of the snow-storm of Hárr’ as the subject of the intercalary clause. There is no reason to change the straightforward word order of the stanza, however, in which ǫs-Freyr ‘the tumult-Freyr’ appears as the subject of the intercalary clause.
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.
Gekk í golli stokkna
gjǫfrífr Hôars drífu
askr — við œrinn þroska
†es-†-Freyr — sæing meyjar.
Gekk í golli stokkna
gjǫfríkr Hôars drífu
askr — viðr œrinn þroska
†es-†-Freyr — sæing meyjar.
Gekk í golli stokkna
gjǫfrífr Hôars drífu
askr — viðr œrinn þroska
ǫs-Freyr — sæing meyjar.
gakk í golli stokkna
gjǫfrífr †has d[…]†
askr — við œrin þroska
egg---þeys — †sæ[…] mey[…]†.
Gekk í golli stokkna
gjǫfrífr Hôars drífu
askr — vinnr yfrinn þroska
él--Freyr — sæing meyjar.
Gekk igvlli stokkna giǫfrífr hárs | drífv askr vinnr yfrinn þroska elfræyr sæing mæyar .
(VEÞ)
Gekk í golli stokkna
gjaf-rífr †has† drífu
askr — við œrinn þroska
él--Freyr — sæing meyjar.
Gekk í golli †stockua†
gjǫfrífr Hôars drífu
askr — viðr œrinn þroska
ǫs-Freyr — sæing meyjar.
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