Edith Marold (ed.) 2017, ‘Hallar-Steinn, Fragments 5’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 206.
(not checked:)
ek (pron.; °mín, dat. mér, acc. mik): I, me
[1] lokri óðar ‘with the plane of poetry [TONGUE]’: In accordance with the comparison of composing poetry with building a ship, the tongue as the tool of poetry is paraphrased by the nýgerving ‘plane of poetry’. A similar kenning, ómunlokri ‘with the voice-plane’, is found in Egill Arkv 15/2V (Eg 111); see Note to l. 2 there.
(not checked:)
lokarr (noun m.; °; lokarar/lokrar): °høvl
[1] óðar lokri: ‘o[…]’ U
[1] lokri óðar ‘with the plane of poetry [TONGUE]’: In accordance with the comparison of composing poetry with building a ship, the tongue as the tool of poetry is paraphrased by the nýgerving ‘plane of poetry’. A similar kenning, ómunlokri ‘with the voice-plane’, is found in Egill Arkv 15/2V (Eg 111); see Note to l. 2 there.
[2, 3] mǫrk ǫlstafna ‘forest of ale-prows [DRINKING HORNS > WOMAN]’: Meissner (Meissner 410) holds that a collective noun meaning ‘forest’, in place of a tree-name, could be used as the base-word in a woman-kenning. However, mǫrk ‘forest’ could also be interpreted as a variation of the base-word ‘land’, which is also frequently found in woman-kennings (NN §447A). ‘Prows’ here is to be understood as pars pro toto for ‘ship’ (Meissner 434), and ‘ale-ships’ is a kenning for ‘drinking horns’ (cf. ǫlstafns ‘of the ale-prow’ in KormǪ Lv 18/6V (Korm 19)).
[2, 3] mǫrk ǫlstafna ‘forest of ale-prows [DRINKING HORNS > WOMAN]’: Meissner (Meissner 410) holds that a collective noun meaning ‘forest’, in place of a tree-name, could be used as the base-word in a woman-kenning. However, mǫrk ‘forest’ could also be interpreted as a variation of the base-word ‘land’, which is also frequently found in woman-kennings (NN §447A). ‘Prows’ here is to be understood as pars pro toto for ‘ship’ (Meissner 434), and ‘ale-ships’ is a kenning for ‘drinking horns’ (cf. ǫlstafns ‘of the ale-prow’ in KormǪ Lv 18/6V (Korm 19)).
(not checked:)
stafn (noun m.; °dat. -i/-; -ar): prow < ǫlstafn (noun m.)
[2] ‑stafna: ‘sta(f)na’(?) U
[2, 3] mǫrk ǫlstafna ‘forest of ale-prows [DRINKING HORNS > WOMAN]’: Meissner (Meissner 410) holds that a collective noun meaning ‘forest’, in place of a tree-name, could be used as the base-word in a woman-kenning. However, mǫrk ‘forest’ could also be interpreted as a variation of the base-word ‘land’, which is also frequently found in woman-kennings (NN §447A). ‘Prows’ here is to be understood as pars pro toto for ‘ship’ (Meissner 434), and ‘ale-ships’ is a kenning for ‘drinking horns’ (cf. ǫlstafns ‘of the ale-prow’ in KormǪ Lv 18/6V (Korm 19)).
(not checked:)
stafn (noun m.; °dat. -i/-; -ar): prow < ǫlstafn (noun m.)
[2] ‑stafna: ‘sta(f)na’(?) U
[2, 3] mǫrk ǫlstafna ‘forest of ale-prows [DRINKING HORNS > WOMAN]’: Meissner (Meissner 410) holds that a collective noun meaning ‘forest’, in place of a tree-name, could be used as the base-word in a woman-kenning. However, mǫrk ‘forest’ could also be interpreted as a variation of the base-word ‘land’, which is also frequently found in woman-kennings (NN §447A). ‘Prows’ here is to be understood as pars pro toto for ‘ship’ (Meissner 434), and ‘ale-ships’ is a kenning for ‘drinking horns’ (cf. ǫlstafns ‘of the ale-prow’ in KormǪ Lv 18/6V (Korm 19)).
[2] þér ‘for you’: This edn adopts þér (so mss R, Tˣ, U, W, C) following the interpretation of Jón Þorkelsson (1890, 5-6). Finnur Jónsson (Skj B), followed by all subsequent eds, opted for the A variant Bil (the name of a goddess). Hence his interpretation contains two woman-kennings, Bil ǫlstafna ‘Bil <goddess> of ale-prows’ and væn mǫrk skála ‘beautiful forest of bowls’ (for skála, see Note to ll. 3-4 below). Finnur Jónsson takes Bil ǫlstafna as dat. (‘for the woman’) and væn mǫrk skála as a form of address. That interpretation is highly unlikely, because the woman is then addressed directly while at the same time being referred to in the third person in the same helmingr. Kock (NN §§1188, 1853) also reads Bil but regards both woman-kennings as nom. and as parallel. The examples given in NN §1853, however, actually show that two kennings seldom form such parallelisms – instead, one of the two constituents of a parallelism is a personal name.
(not checked:)
2. mǫrk (noun f.; °merkr; merkr): forest
[2, 3] mǫrk ǫlstafna ‘forest of ale-prows [DRINKING HORNS > WOMAN]’: Meissner (Meissner 410) holds that a collective noun meaning ‘forest’, in place of a tree-name, could be used as the base-word in a woman-kenning. However, mǫrk ‘forest’ could also be interpreted as a variation of the base-word ‘land’, which is also frequently found in woman-kennings (NN §447A). ‘Prows’ here is to be understood as pars pro toto for ‘ship’ (Meissner 434), and ‘ale-ships’ is a kenning for ‘drinking horns’ (cf. ǫlstafns ‘of the ale-prow’ in KormǪ Lv 18/6V (Korm 19)).
(not checked:)
skulu (verb): shall, should, must
[3-4] verki skala vandr ‘the poem should not be difficult’: This edn takes the mss’ ‘skala’ as skala, the finite verb skal ‘shall, will, must’ plus the negative suffix ‑a in an intercalated clause (verki skala vandr ‘the poem should not be difficult’; cf. Jón Þorkelsson 1890, 5-6). Finnur Jónsson (Skj B), followed by all other eds, interpreted ‘skala’ as the noun skála f. gen. pl. ‘of bowls’ and joined it with mǫrk ‘forest’ to form the woman-kenning mǫrk skála ‘forest of bowls [WOMAN]’. In eds which regard skála as the determinant in a woman-kenning, verki (verka ms. C) is interpreted differently in syntactical terms. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) and Kock (Skald) choose the C variant verka and regard it as gen. governed by vandr ‘careful’ (l. 4), hence vandr verka is translated as ‘careful with the poem’ and regarded as an attribute to the subject ek ‘I’ (l. 1). Faulkes’s edn (SnE 1998, I, 63) has vandr verki ‘careful with the work’ (verki regarded as dat. of verk n.) in the same syntactical function (SnE 1998, II, 420). However, vandr is normally construed with prepositions like at, um or við ‘with, concerning sth.’ (Fritzner: vandr 1) and not with the gen. or dat. Furthermore, skála is unmetrical, because the disyllabic word in metrical positions 3-4 must have a short stem vowel in this type of odd line (A2k; cf. Gade 1995a, 117-18).
(not checked:)
verki (noun m.; °-a): deed, work
[3] verki: verki corrected from merki Tˣ, verka C
[3-4] verki skala vandr ‘the poem should not be difficult’: This edn takes the mss’ ‘skala’ as skala, the finite verb skal ‘shall, will, must’ plus the negative suffix ‑a in an intercalated clause (verki skala vandr ‘the poem should not be difficult’; cf. Jón Þorkelsson 1890, 5-6). Finnur Jónsson (Skj B), followed by all other eds, interpreted ‘skala’ as the noun skála f. gen. pl. ‘of bowls’ and joined it with mǫrk ‘forest’ to form the woman-kenning mǫrk skála ‘forest of bowls [WOMAN]’. In eds which regard skála as the determinant in a woman-kenning, verki (verka ms. C) is interpreted differently in syntactical terms. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) and Kock (Skald) choose the C variant verka and regard it as gen. governed by vandr ‘careful’ (l. 4), hence vandr verka is translated as ‘careful with the poem’ and regarded as an attribute to the subject ek ‘I’ (l. 1). Faulkes’s edn (SnE 1998, I, 63) has vandr verki ‘careful with the work’ (verki regarded as dat. of verk n.) in the same syntactical function (SnE 1998, II, 420). However, vandr is normally construed with prepositions like at, um or við ‘with, concerning sth.’ (Fritzner: vandr 1) and not with the gen. or dat. Furthermore, skála is unmetrical, because the disyllabic word in metrical positions 3-4 must have a short stem vowel in this type of odd line (A2k; cf. Gade 1995a, 117-18).
[3-4] verki skala vandr ‘the poem should not be difficult’: This edn takes the mss’ ‘skala’ as skala, the finite verb skal ‘shall, will, must’ plus the negative suffix ‑a in an intercalated clause (verki skala vandr ‘the poem should not be difficult’; cf. Jón Þorkelsson 1890, 5-6). Finnur Jónsson (Skj B), followed by all other eds, interpreted ‘skala’ as the noun skála f. gen. pl. ‘of bowls’ and joined it with mǫrk ‘forest’ to form the woman-kenning mǫrk skála ‘forest of bowls [WOMAN]’. In eds which regard skála as the determinant in a woman-kenning, verki (verka ms. C) is interpreted differently in syntactical terms. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) and Kock (Skald) choose the C variant verka and regard it as gen. governed by vandr ‘careful’ (l. 4), hence vandr verka is translated as ‘careful with the poem’ and regarded as an attribute to the subject ek ‘I’ (l. 1). Faulkes’s edn (SnE 1998, I, 63) has vandr verki ‘careful with the work’ (verki regarded as dat. of verk n.) in the same syntactical function (SnE 1998, II, 420). However, vandr is normally construed with prepositions like at, um or við ‘with, concerning sth.’ (Fritzner: vandr 1) and not with the gen. or dat. Furthermore, skála is unmetrical, because the disyllabic word in metrical positions 3-4 must have a short stem vowel in this type of odd line (A2k; cf. Gade 1995a, 117-18).
(not checked:)
stef (noun n.; °; -): refrain < stefknǫrr (noun m.)
[4] branda stefknarrar ‘the bows of the refrain-ship [DRÁPA > UPPHAF]’: A drápa is a longer poem with one or more refrains (stef). Upphaf ‘beginning’ is usually the technical term for the first part of a drápa, its introductory section before the first stef ‘refrain’ (see Section 4.5 in the General Introduction in SkP I).
(not checked:)
stef (noun n.; °; -): refrain < stefknǫrr (noun m.)
[4] branda stefknarrar ‘the bows of the refrain-ship [DRÁPA > UPPHAF]’: A drápa is a longer poem with one or more refrains (stef). Upphaf ‘beginning’ is usually the technical term for the first part of a drápa, its introductory section before the first stef ‘refrain’ (see Section 4.5 in the General Introduction in SkP I).
(not checked:)
knǫrr (noun m.; °knarrar, dat. knerri; knerrir, acc. knǫrru/knerri): (a kind of) ship < stefknǫrr (noun m.)
[4] ‑knarrar: so Tˣ, W, A, C, ‘‑knarrarar’ R, ‘[…]’ U
[4] branda stefknarrar ‘the bows of the refrain-ship [DRÁPA > UPPHAF]’: A drápa is a longer poem with one or more refrains (stef). Upphaf ‘beginning’ is usually the technical term for the first part of a drápa, its introductory section before the first stef ‘refrain’ (see Section 4.5 in the General Introduction in SkP I).
(not checked:)
knǫrr (noun m.; °knarrar, dat. knerri; knerrir, acc. knǫrru/knerri): (a kind of) ship < stefknǫrr (noun m.)
[4] ‑knarrar: so Tˣ, W, A, C, ‘‑knarrarar’ R, ‘[…]’ U
[4] branda stefknarrar ‘the bows of the refrain-ship [DRÁPA > UPPHAF]’: A drápa is a longer poem with one or more refrains (stef). Upphaf ‘beginning’ is usually the technical term for the first part of a drápa, its introductory section before the first stef ‘refrain’ (see Section 4.5 in the General Introduction in SkP I).
(not checked:)
brandr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -i; -ar): sword, prow; fire
[4] branda: ‘[…]randa’ U
[4] branda ‘the bows’: Taken here as acc. pl. of brandr m. In skaldic poetry brandr is often used in the pl. (LP: 3. brandr) and as pars pro toto for ‘ship’ (Jesch 2001a, 147-8). Accordingly, in such cases it must have referred to some part of a ship, but it is not clear exactly which part (ibid.). According to Falk (1912, 44-5) brandr was a strip of wood running along the side of a ship’s prow, and Clunies Ross (2005a, 38 n. 16) assumes that brandar refer to a pair of these wooden strips and hence to the prow as a whole in the present stanza. — [4] branda stefknarrar ‘the bows of the refrain-ship [DRÁPA > UPPHAF]’: A drápa is a longer poem with one or more refrains (stef). Upphaf ‘beginning’ is usually the technical term for the first part of a drápa, its introductory section before the first stef ‘refrain’ (see Section 4.5 in the General Introduction in SkP I).
(not checked:)
brandr (noun m.; °-s, dat. -i; -ar): sword, prow; fire
[4] branda: ‘[…]randa’ U
[4] branda ‘the bows’: Taken here as acc. pl. of brandr m. In skaldic poetry brandr is often used in the pl. (LP: 3. brandr) and as pars pro toto for ‘ship’ (Jesch 2001a, 147-8). Accordingly, in such cases it must have referred to some part of a ship, but it is not clear exactly which part (ibid.). According to Falk (1912, 44-5) brandr was a strip of wood running along the side of a ship’s prow, and Clunies Ross (2005a, 38 n. 16) assumes that brandar refer to a pair of these wooden strips and hence to the prow as a whole in the present stanza. — [4] branda stefknarrar ‘the bows of the refrain-ship [DRÁPA > UPPHAF]’: A drápa is a longer poem with one or more refrains (stef). Upphaf ‘beginning’ is usually the technical term for the first part of a drápa, its introductory section before the first stef ‘refrain’ (see Section 4.5 in the General Introduction in SkP I).
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
This helmingr is cited in Skm (SnE) to exemplify a woman-kenning with mǫrk ‘forest’ as its base-word.
In this stanza, Hallar-Steinn compares the activity of composing poetry to that of a ship-builder smoothing wood with a plane; the poem (drápa) is a ship (stefknǫrr ‘refrain-ship’) and the beginning of the poem (upphaf) the bow(s) (brandar) of a ship (Clunies Ross 2005a, 38). Cf. also RvHbreiðm Hl 3/3, where framstafn ‘the prow’ refers to the beginning of the poem (see Kreutzer 1977, 255-7 on comparison of poems to ships in skaldic poetry, as well as Clunies Ross 2005a, 87).
Use the buttons at the top of the page to navigate between stanzas in a poem.
The text and translation are given here, with buttons to toggle whether the text is shown in the verse order or prose word order. Clicking on indiviudal words gives dictionary links, variant readings, kennings and notes, where relevant.
This is the text of the edition in a similar format to how the edition appears in the printed volumes.
This view is also used for chapters and other text segments. Not all the headings shown are relevant to such sections.