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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Anon Bjark 7^III

Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Poems, Bjarkamál in fornu 7’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 505.

Anonymous Poems Bjarkamál in fornu

Svá ‘Thus’

(not checked:)
svá (adv.): so, thus

skalk ‘I shall’

(not checked:)
skulu (verb): shall, should, must

hann ‘him’

(not checked:)
hann (pron.; °gen. hans, dat. honum; f. hon, gen. hennar, acc. hana): he, she, it, they, them...

kyrkja ‘throttle’

(not checked:)
kyrkja (verb): [throttle]

sem ‘like’

(not checked:)
sem (conj.): as, which

inn ‘the’

(not checked:)
2. inn (art.): the

kennings

inn kámleita véli viðbjarnar aldinna veggja.
‘the dark betrayer of the wood-bear of old walls. ’
= CAT
the wood-bear of old walls. → MOUSE
the dark betrayer of the MOUSE → CAT

notes

[2-4] inn kámleita véli viðbjarnar aldinna veggja ‘the dark betrayer of the wood-bear of old walls [MOUSE > CAT]’: The interpretation of this unique kenning (cf. Meissner 111) is secured by the prose commentary in LaufE.

kámleita ‘dark’

(not checked:)
kámleitr (adj.): [dark]

kennings

inn kámleita véli viðbjarnar aldinna veggja.
‘the dark betrayer of the wood-bear of old walls. ’
= CAT
the wood-bear of old walls. → MOUSE
the dark betrayer of the MOUSE → CAT

notes

[2-4] inn kámleita véli viðbjarnar aldinna veggja ‘the dark betrayer of the wood-bear of old walls [MOUSE > CAT]’: The interpretation of this unique kenning (cf. Meissner 111) is secured by the prose commentary in LaufE.

véli ‘betrayer’

(not checked:)
vélir (noun m.): °(heiti; for mand)

kennings

inn kámleita véli viðbjarnar aldinna veggja.
‘the dark betrayer of the wood-bear of old walls. ’
= CAT
the wood-bear of old walls. → MOUSE
the dark betrayer of the MOUSE → CAT

notes

[2-4] inn kámleita véli viðbjarnar aldinna veggja ‘the dark betrayer of the wood-bear of old walls [MOUSE > CAT]’: The interpretation of this unique kenning (cf. Meissner 111) is secured by the prose commentary in LaufE.

viðbjarnar ‘of the wood-bear’

(not checked:)
viðbjǫrn (noun m.): [wood-bear]

[3] viðbjarnar: viðbjarna 2368ˣ

kennings

inn kámleita véli viðbjarnar aldinna veggja.
‘the dark betrayer of the wood-bear of old walls. ’
= CAT
the wood-bear of old walls. → MOUSE
the dark betrayer of the MOUSE → CAT

notes

[2-4] inn kámleita véli viðbjarnar aldinna veggja ‘the dark betrayer of the wood-bear of old walls [MOUSE > CAT]’: The interpretation of this unique kenning (cf. Meissner 111) is secured by the prose commentary in LaufE.

viðbjarnar ‘of the wood-bear’

(not checked:)
viðbjǫrn (noun m.): [wood-bear]

[3] viðbjarnar: viðbjarna 2368ˣ

kennings

inn kámleita véli viðbjarnar aldinna veggja.
‘the dark betrayer of the wood-bear of old walls. ’
= CAT
the wood-bear of old walls. → MOUSE
the dark betrayer of the MOUSE → CAT

notes

[2-4] inn kámleita véli viðbjarnar aldinna veggja ‘the dark betrayer of the wood-bear of old walls [MOUSE > CAT]’: The interpretation of this unique kenning (cf. Meissner 111) is secured by the prose commentary in LaufE.

veggja ‘walls’

(not checked:)
1. veggr (noun m.; °-jar/-s(Páll²A 257³³), dat. -/-i(kun defin.); -ir): wall

kennings

inn kámleita véli viðbjarnar aldinna veggja.
‘the dark betrayer of the wood-bear of old walls. ’
= CAT
the wood-bear of old walls. → MOUSE
the dark betrayer of the MOUSE → CAT

notes

[2-4] inn kámleita véli viðbjarnar aldinna veggja ‘the dark betrayer of the wood-bear of old walls [MOUSE > CAT]’: The interpretation of this unique kenning (cf. Meissner 111) is secured by the prose commentary in LaufE.

veggja ‘walls’

(not checked:)
1. veggr (noun m.; °-jar/-s(Páll²A 257³³), dat. -/-i(kun defin.); -ir): wall

kennings

inn kámleita véli viðbjarnar aldinna veggja.
‘the dark betrayer of the wood-bear of old walls. ’
= CAT
the wood-bear of old walls. → MOUSE
the dark betrayer of the MOUSE → CAT

notes

[2-4] inn kámleita véli viðbjarnar aldinna veggja ‘the dark betrayer of the wood-bear of old walls [MOUSE > CAT]’: The interpretation of this unique kenning (cf. Meissner 111) is secured by the prose commentary in LaufE.

aldinna ‘of old’

(not checked:)
2. aldinn (adj.): old

kennings

inn kámleita véli viðbjarnar aldinna veggja.
‘the dark betrayer of the wood-bear of old walls. ’
= CAT
the wood-bear of old walls. → MOUSE
the dark betrayer of the MOUSE → CAT

notes

[2-4] inn kámleita véli viðbjarnar aldinna veggja ‘the dark betrayer of the wood-bear of old walls [MOUSE > CAT]’: The interpretation of this unique kenning (cf. Meissner 111) is secured by the prose commentary in LaufE.

aldinna ‘of old’

(not checked:)
2. aldinn (adj.): old

kennings

inn kámleita véli viðbjarnar aldinna veggja.
‘the dark betrayer of the wood-bear of old walls. ’
= CAT
the wood-bear of old walls. → MOUSE
the dark betrayer of the MOUSE → CAT

notes

[2-4] inn kámleita véli viðbjarnar aldinna veggja ‘the dark betrayer of the wood-bear of old walls [MOUSE > CAT]’: The interpretation of this unique kenning (cf. Meissner 111) is secured by the prose commentary in LaufE.

Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses

In mss of LaufE this helmingr is listed as an example of kennings for animals and introduced thus: svá stendr í Bjarkamálum ‘thus it stands in Bjarkamál’. After the citation, the prose text explains (normalised): hér er mús kǫlluð viðbjǫrn veggja, enn kǫttrinn vélir hennar ‘here a mouse is called wood-bear of walls, and the cat her betrayer’.

This stanza is in direct speech mode, but neither the speaker nor the addressee can be identified, nor can the person who is threatened with strangulation. No source for it, aside from its recording in LaufE, is known, though it is also in RE 1665(Ee2). Faulkes (LaufE 1979, 265 n.) suggests it may have been derived from leaves from W that are now lost. However, it is possible that a remark attributed to Bǫðvarr bjarki in the prose of Hrólf is a version of that part of Bjark from which this helmingr comes. After Hrólfr kraki has fallen, Bǫðvarr rails bitterly against what he identifies as Óðinn’s role in causing his lord’s death, calling him foul and faithless and threatening that, if he were able to identify him, skylda ek kreista hann sem annan vesta ok minnsta mýsling (Hrólf 1960, 122 normalised) ‘I would squeeze him like some other vilest and tiniest mousling’. Here we find an implicit equation between the speaker (Bǫðvarr) and his victim (Óðinn) in terms of the hostility of a cat to a mouse, as the kenning of Bjark 7 also indicates. A similar but less graphic threat is recorded by Saxo (Saxo 2015, I, ii. 7. 27, pp. 138-9) without the cat-mouse comparison.

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