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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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HSt Frag 3III

Edith Marold (ed.) 2017, ‘Hallar-Steinn, Fragments 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. 203.

Hallar-SteinnFragments
234

text and translation

Svalteigar mun selju
salts Víðblinda galtar
rafkastandi rastar
reyrþvengs muna lengi.

{Víðblinda galtar {salts svalteigar {raf{kastandi}}}} mun lengi muna {selju {rastar {reyrþvengs}}}.
 
‘The thrower of the amber of the salty, cool meadow of the boar of Víðblindi <giant> [(lit. ‘amber-thrower of the salty, cool meadow of the boar of Víðblindi’) WHALE > SEA > GOLD > GENEROUS MAN] will for a long time remember the willow of the path of the reed-thong [SNAKE > GOLD > WOMAN].

notes and context

Skm (SnE) and LaufE cite this helmingr to exemplify how, in a woman-kenning, ‘gold’ can serve as the determinant and a woman can be called selja gulls ‘willow of gold’. After the stanza Snorri (SnE 1998, I, 63)  explains that Víðblindi, a giant, angles for whales in the water as though they were fish; hence the whale-kenning gǫltr Víðblinda ‘boar of Víðblindi’. In addition, the base-word of the kenning selja gulls ‘willow of gold’ is explained as a homonym (samheiti), either a woman (selja) who bestows (selr) something (gold), or a tree (selja ‘willow’).

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: Hallar-Steinn, 2. a. Af et digt om en kvinde 2: AI, 552, BI, 534, Skald I, 260; SnE 1848-87, I, 408-9, II, 323-4, 434, 583, III, 72, SnE 1931, 145, SnE 1998, I, 63; LaufE 1979, 294, 378.

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