HSt Frag 2III
Edith Marold (ed.) 2017, ‘Hallar-Steinn, Fragments 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 202.
Holm ‘of the island’
(not checked:)
holmr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -i/-; -ar): island, islet < holmleggr (noun m.)
kennings
Hilmir holmleggjar‘The ruler of the island-bone ’
= DWARF = Litr
the island-bone → ROCK
The ruler of the ROCK → DWARF = Litr
notes
[1] hilmir holmleggjar ‘the ruler of the island-bone [ROCK > DWARF = Litr (litr ‘colour’)]’: The kenning is an ofljóst construction based on the homonymy of the pers. n. Litr (dwarf-name, cf. Note to Þul Dverga 6/2) and the noun litr ‘colour, hue’ (TGT 1884, 198-9). In the context of the stanza litr refers to the appearance (Fritzner: litr 3) and beauty of a woman. Holmleggjar is formed according to the kenning pattern ‘bone of the earth’ for ‘stone’.
Holm ‘of the island’
(not checked:)
holmr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -i/-; -ar): island, islet < holmleggr (noun m.)
kennings
Hilmir holmleggjar‘The ruler of the island-bone ’
= DWARF = Litr
the island-bone → ROCK
The ruler of the ROCK → DWARF = Litr
notes
[1] hilmir holmleggjar ‘the ruler of the island-bone [ROCK > DWARF = Litr (litr ‘colour’)]’: The kenning is an ofljóst construction based on the homonymy of the pers. n. Litr (dwarf-name, cf. Note to Þul Dverga 6/2) and the noun litr ‘colour, hue’ (TGT 1884, 198-9). In the context of the stanza litr refers to the appearance (Fritzner: litr 3) and beauty of a woman. Holmleggjar is formed according to the kenning pattern ‘bone of the earth’ for ‘stone’.
leggjar ‘bone’
(not checked:)
leggr (noun m.; °-jar, dat. -; -ir): limb < holmleggr (noun m.)
kennings
Hilmir holmleggjar‘The ruler of the island-bone ’
= DWARF = Litr
the island-bone → ROCK
The ruler of the ROCK → DWARF = Litr
notes
[1] hilmir holmleggjar ‘the ruler of the island-bone [ROCK > DWARF = Litr (litr ‘colour’)]’: The kenning is an ofljóst construction based on the homonymy of the pers. n. Litr (dwarf-name, cf. Note to Þul Dverga 6/2) and the noun litr ‘colour, hue’ (TGT 1884, 198-9). In the context of the stanza litr refers to the appearance (Fritzner: litr 3) and beauty of a woman. Holmleggjar is formed according to the kenning pattern ‘bone of the earth’ for ‘stone’.
leggjar ‘bone’
(not checked:)
leggr (noun m.; °-jar, dat. -; -ir): limb < holmleggr (noun m.)
kennings
Hilmir holmleggjar‘The ruler of the island-bone ’
= DWARF = Litr
the island-bone → ROCK
The ruler of the ROCK → DWARF = Litr
notes
[1] hilmir holmleggjar ‘the ruler of the island-bone [ROCK > DWARF = Litr (litr ‘colour’)]’: The kenning is an ofljóst construction based on the homonymy of the pers. n. Litr (dwarf-name, cf. Note to Þul Dverga 6/2) and the noun litr ‘colour, hue’ (TGT 1884, 198-9). In the context of the stanza litr refers to the appearance (Fritzner: litr 3) and beauty of a woman. Holmleggjar is formed according to the kenning pattern ‘bone of the earth’ for ‘stone’.
notes
[1] viðr ‘makes’: Instead of the form viðr (< vinnr, see ANG §261), a result of regular sound change in the Viking Age, ms. A gives the later, analogical form vinnr, but the older form is preferable and has been adopted here.
hilmir ‘The ruler’
(not checked:)
hilmir (noun m.): prince, protector
kennings
Hilmir holmleggjar‘The ruler of the island-bone ’
= DWARF = Litr
the island-bone → ROCK
The ruler of the ROCK → DWARF = Litr
notes
[1] hilmir holmleggjar ‘the ruler of the island-bone [ROCK > DWARF = Litr (litr ‘colour’)]’: The kenning is an ofljóst construction based on the homonymy of the pers. n. Litr (dwarf-name, cf. Note to Þul Dverga 6/2) and the noun litr ‘colour, hue’ (TGT 1884, 198-9). In the context of the stanza litr refers to the appearance (Fritzner: litr 3) and beauty of a woman. Holmleggjar is formed according to the kenning pattern ‘bone of the earth’ for ‘stone’.
hring ‘of the ring’
(not checked:)
1. hringr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -; -ar): ring; sword < hringskǫgul (noun f.)
kennings
hring-Skǫglar‘of the ring-Skǫgul ’
= WOMAN
the ring-Skǫgul → WOMAN
Skǫglar ‘Skǫgul’
(not checked:)
Skǫgul (noun f.): Skǫgul < hringskǫgul (noun f.)
kennings
hring-Skǫglar‘of the ring-Skǫgul ’
= WOMAN
the ring-Skǫgul → WOMAN
mik ‘me’
(not checked:)
ek (pron.; °mín, dat. mér, acc. mik): I, me
þǫglan ‘silent’
(not checked:)
þǫgull (adj.): [silent]
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
This couplet is cited in TGT in the section on the rhetorical figure Amphibologia, i.e. a word that could have more than one meaning. Immediately following the couplet, Óláfr Þórðarson, the author of TGT, explains that litr ‘colour’ is the name of a dwarf and also a term for feminine beauty.
The couplet portrays the inability to speak as a typical motif of love-sickness, cf. e.g. Gríp 29, and further examples in Lowes (1913-14), Heinrichs (1988) and Wack (1990).
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