Hfr Hákdr 5III
Kate Heslop (ed.) 2017, ‘Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld Óttarsson, Hákonardrápa 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. 219.
Sann ‘by means of true’
(not checked:)
2. sannr (adj.; °-an; compar. -ari, superl. -astr): true < 2. sannyrði (noun n.)
kennings
sannyrðum sverða.‘by means of true words of swords.’
= BATTLE
by means of true words of swords. → BATTLE
yrðum ‘words’
(not checked:)
yrði (noun n.; °; -): [words] < 2. sannyrði (noun n.)
[1] ‑yrðum: ‘‑yrðinn’ B
kennings
sannyrðum sverða.‘by means of true words of swords.’
= BATTLE
by means of true words of swords. → BATTLE
notes
[1, 4] spenr … und sik ‘draws under himself’: A conventional phrase for the winning of land, both in verse (Sigv Knútdr 6/2-3I; Egill Lv 45/1V (Eg 129), here með orðum ‘with words’, cf. sannyrðum ‘true words’, l. 1) and prose (Fritzner: spenja). The phrase also works on the metaphorical level of Hákon’s seduction of Jǫrð, as spenja may be applied to a person, with the meaning ‘lure, entice’.
sverða ‘of swords’
(not checked:)
sverð (noun n.; °-s; -): sword
kennings
sannyrðum sverða.‘by means of true words of swords.’
= BATTLE
by means of true words of swords. → BATTLE
snarr ‘The swift’
(not checked:)
snarr (adj.): gallant, bold
[2] snarr: so B, þvarr R, snar Tˣ, U, ‘svarr’ W
kennings
Snarr þiggjandi viggjar byrjar‘The swift receiver of the horse of the breeze ’
= SEAFARER
the horse of the breeze → SHIP
The swift receiver of the SHIP → SEAFARER
notes
[2] snarr ‘swift’: So B. Ms. R’s þvarr ‘diminished’ spoils both sense and metre. Mss Tˣ and U have snarþiggjandi ‘swift-receiver’, which is also acceptable, while W’s scribe may have attempted to improve an R-like reading.
þiggjandi ‘receiver’
(not checked:)
þiggjandi (noun m.): [receiver]
kennings
Snarr þiggjandi viggjar byrjar‘The swift receiver of the horse of the breeze ’
= SEAFARER
the horse of the breeze → SHIP
The swift receiver of the SHIP → SEAFARER
kennings
Snarr þiggjandi viggjar byrjar‘The swift receiver of the horse of the breeze ’
= SEAFARER
the horse of the breeze → SHIP
The swift receiver of the SHIP → SEAFARER
kennings
Snarr þiggjandi viggjar byrjar‘The swift receiver of the horse of the breeze ’
= SEAFARER
the horse of the breeze → SHIP
The swift receiver of the SHIP → SEAFARER
barr ‘the foliage’
(not checked:)
1. barr (noun n.): barley < barrhaddaðr (adj.)
[3] barr‑: so W, ‘biarr’ R, ‘barr har’ Tˣ, bar U, B
kennings
barrhaddaða biðkvôn Þriðja‘the foliage-haired waiting wife of Þriði ’
= Jǫrð (jǫrð ‘earth’)
the foliage-haired waiting wife of Þriði → Jǫrð (jǫrð ‘earth’)
notes
[3] barrhaddaða ‘foliage-haired’: Barr n. means both ‘barley’ and ‘pine-needles’. Finnur Jónsson (LP: barrhaddaðr) favours the latter, with reference to the dense evergreen forests of Norway (cf. Tindr’s Hákdr 7/7, 8I, which calls Norway mǫrk heiðins dóms ‘forest of heathendom’), but ‘barley’ would fit well with the fertility theme and is commoner in skaldic verse. Possibly the ambiguity is deliberate, as Davidson (1983, 502) and Dronke (1997, 413-14) suggest. The conceit of plants as the hair of the land is a common one, perhaps drawing on the myth of the primeval giant Ymir (Gylf, SnE 2005, 11-12; Grí 40). Ms. R’s meaningless ‘biarr’ is presumably a scribal error.
haddaða ‘haired’
(not checked:)
-haddaðr (adj.): haired < barrhaddaðr (adj.)
[3] ‑haddaða: ‘‑hoddaþa’ U
kennings
barrhaddaða biðkvôn Þriðja‘the foliage-haired waiting wife of Þriði ’
= Jǫrð (jǫrð ‘earth’)
the foliage-haired waiting wife of Þriði → Jǫrð (jǫrð ‘earth’)
notes
[3] barrhaddaða ‘foliage-haired’: Barr n. means both ‘barley’ and ‘pine-needles’. Finnur Jónsson (LP: barrhaddaðr) favours the latter, with reference to the dense evergreen forests of Norway (cf. Tindr’s Hákdr 7/7, 8I, which calls Norway mǫrk heiðins dóms ‘forest of heathendom’), but ‘barley’ would fit well with the fertility theme and is commoner in skaldic verse. Possibly the ambiguity is deliberate, as Davidson (1983, 502) and Dronke (1997, 413-14) suggest. The conceit of plants as the hair of the land is a common one, perhaps drawing on the myth of the primeval giant Ymir (Gylf, SnE 2005, 11-12; Grí 40). Ms. R’s meaningless ‘biarr’ is presumably a scribal error.
byrjar ‘of the breeze’
(not checked:)
byrr (noun m.; °-jar/-s; -ir, acc. -i/-u(SigrVal 188¹³)): favourable wind
kennings
Snarr þiggjandi viggjar byrjar‘The swift receiver of the horse of the breeze ’
= SEAFARER
the horse of the breeze → SHIP
The swift receiver of the SHIP → SEAFARER
byrjar ‘of the breeze’
(not checked:)
byrr (noun m.; °-jar/-s; -ir, acc. -i/-u(SigrVal 188¹³)): favourable wind
kennings
Snarr þiggjandi viggjar byrjar‘The swift receiver of the horse of the breeze ’
= SEAFARER
the horse of the breeze → SHIP
The swift receiver of the SHIP → SEAFARER
bið ‘waiting’
(not checked:)
bíða (verb; °bíðr; beið, biðu; beðit): wait, suffer, experience < biðkván (noun f.)
[4] bið‑: so U, bif‑ all others
kennings
barrhaddaða biðkvôn Þriðja‘the foliage-haired waiting wife of Þriði ’
= Jǫrð (jǫrð ‘earth’)
the foliage-haired waiting wife of Þriði → Jǫrð (jǫrð ‘earth’)
notes
[4] biðkvôn ‘waiting wife’: Óðinn may have abandoned his wife Jǫrð for the goddess Frigg, although this is not stated explicitly in Old Norse sources. The skald apparently pictures Jǫrð as awaiting (in vain) Óðinn’s return, and thus all the more ripe for Hákon to seduce. Bið- could alternatively be from biðja ‘woo, court, propose to’ rather than bíða ‘wait’, as Kock (NN §§1911B, 1955) argues. The phrase would then mean ‘wooed woman’, and suggest that Hákon actively desires Jǫrð/Norway. There are no other Old Norse compounds with bið- from biðja as the first element, however, but compounds with bið- from bíða are rather common. Bifkvôn ‘trembling wife’, the reading of R, spoils the hending with Þriðja; Faulkes’s (SnE 1998, I, 158) suggestion that it refers to a volcanic landscape is attractive but as he admits, applies better to Iceland than to Norway.
kvôn ‘wife’
(not checked:)
kván (noun f.; °-ar): wife < biðkván (noun f.)
kennings
barrhaddaða biðkvôn Þriðja‘the foliage-haired waiting wife of Þriði ’
= Jǫrð (jǫrð ‘earth’)
the foliage-haired waiting wife of Þriði → Jǫrð (jǫrð ‘earth’)
notes
[4] biðkvôn ‘waiting wife’: Óðinn may have abandoned his wife Jǫrð for the goddess Frigg, although this is not stated explicitly in Old Norse sources. The skald apparently pictures Jǫrð as awaiting (in vain) Óðinn’s return, and thus all the more ripe for Hákon to seduce. Bið- could alternatively be from biðja ‘woo, court, propose to’ rather than bíða ‘wait’, as Kock (NN §§1911B, 1955) argues. The phrase would then mean ‘wooed woman’, and suggest that Hákon actively desires Jǫrð/Norway. There are no other Old Norse compounds with bið- from biðja as the first element, however, but compounds with bið- from bíða are rather common. Bifkvôn ‘trembling wife’, the reading of R, spoils the hending with Þriðja; Faulkes’s (SnE 1998, I, 158) suggestion that it refers to a volcanic landscape is attractive but as he admits, applies better to Iceland than to Norway.
notes
[1, 4] spenr … und sik ‘draws under himself’: A conventional phrase for the winning of land, both in verse (Sigv Knútdr 6/2-3I; Egill Lv 45/1V (Eg 129), here með orðum ‘with words’, cf. sannyrðum ‘true words’, l. 1) and prose (Fritzner: spenja). The phrase also works on the metaphorical level of Hákon’s seduction of Jǫrð, as spenja may be applied to a person, with the meaning ‘lure, entice’. — [4] und ‘under’: The majority reading is preferable to R’s of ‘around’, as spenja und is a standard phrase whereas spenja of is unknown.
notes
[1, 4] spenr … und sik ‘draws under himself’: A conventional phrase for the winning of land, both in verse (Sigv Knútdr 6/2-3I; Egill Lv 45/1V (Eg 129), here með orðum ‘with words’, cf. sannyrðum ‘true words’, l. 1) and prose (Fritzner: spenja). The phrase also works on the metaphorical level of Hákon’s seduction of Jǫrð, as spenja may be applied to a person, with the meaning ‘lure, entice’. — [4] und ‘under’: The majority reading is preferable to R’s of ‘around’, as spenja und is a standard phrase whereas spenja of is unknown.
sik ‘himself’
(not checked:)
sik (pron.; °gen. sín, dat. sér): (refl. pron.)
notes
[1, 4] spenr … und sik ‘draws under himself’: A conventional phrase for the winning of land, both in verse (Sigv Knútdr 6/2-3I; Egill Lv 45/1V (Eg 129), here með orðum ‘with words’, cf. sannyrðum ‘true words’, l. 1) and prose (Fritzner: spenja). The phrase also works on the metaphorical level of Hákon’s seduction of Jǫrð, as spenja may be applied to a person, with the meaning ‘lure, entice’.
Þriðja ‘of Þriði’
(not checked:)
Þriði (noun m.): Þriði
kennings
barrhaddaða biðkvôn Þriðja‘the foliage-haired waiting wife of Þriði ’
= Jǫrð (jǫrð ‘earth’)
the foliage-haired waiting wife of Þriði → Jǫrð (jǫrð ‘earth’)
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
Skm cites this half-stanza as the last in a series illustrating kennings and heiti for Óðinn. Directly after it is the comment (SnE 1998, I, 8): Hér er þess dœmi at jǫrð er kǫlluð kona Óðins í skáldskap ‘Here is an example of earth being called the wife of Óðinn in poetry’.
Hákon’s conquest of Norway is represented here as the seduction of a woman who personifies the land. The hieros gamos ‘sacred marriage’ topos (see Introduction) is sharpened by the skaldic technique of ofljóst. ‘The wife of Þriði’ is the goddess Jǫrð and so the common noun jǫrð ‘earth’, making the equation lady = land especially persuasive.
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