Hfr Hákdr 6^III

Því hykk fleygjanda frægjan
— ferr Jǫrð und menþverri
ítran — eina at láta
Auðs systur mjǫk trauðan.

Því hykk {frægjan fleygjanda [auðs]} mjǫk trauðan at láta {systur Auðs} eina; Jǫrð ferr und {ítran menþverri}.

Because of that I think {the renowned flinger [of riches]} [GENEROUS MAN] is very reluctant to let {Auðr’s <giant’s> sister} [= Jǫrð (jǫrð ‘earth’)] alone; Jǫrð <goddess> submits to {the glorious ring-diminisher} [GENEROUS MAN].

Mss: R(26r), Tˣ(27r), W(57), U(29v), B(5r), 744ˣ(30v) (SnE)

Readings: [1] Því: Hvé W;    hykk: om. W;    fleygjanda: so U, ‘fleyianda’ R, ‘fleiuanda’ Tˣ, ‘fleygi[…]a’ W, ‘fleyíande’ B;    frægjan: so all others, ‘fræian’ R    [2] ferr: ‘f[…]’ W;    Jǫrð: ‘[…]’ W;    menþverri: ‘menn þverr[…]’ W, ‘me[…]’ B, ‘men þuerri’ 744ˣ    [3] ítran: so Tˣ, W, U, ítra R, ‘[…]ran’ B, ‘itran’ 744ˣ;    eina: so U, ein R, W, einn Tˣ, B;    at: so all others, ‘a’ R    [4] systur: om. R, Tˣ, blank space W, systr U, ‘þerssa’ B;    trauðan: ‘trav[…]n’ W

Editions: Skj AI, 155, Skj BI, 147, Skald I, 80, NN §§510, 2171A; SnE 1848-87, I, 322-3, II, 315, 528, III, 51, SnE 1931, 115, SnE 1998, I, 36; Davidson 1983, 510-15.

Context: Skm cites this half-stanza as the penultimate item in a set of six helmingar exemplifying kennings for the goddess Jǫrð (two of the others are also from Hallfreðr’s Hákdr, sts 7 and 8). The kenning in question is presumably systir Auðs ‘Auðr’s sister’, though interpretation is problematic; see Notes.

Notes: [All]: The syntax is problematic, and judging by the variant readings, also confused medieval scribes. Mss R, Tˣ, W and B are defective in l. 4, leaving láta eina ‘let alone’ without an object. Ms. U’s reading systr ‘sisters’ (emended slightly to systur acc. sg.) makes good this lack, yielding the kenning systur Auðs ‘sister of Auðr [= Jǫrð]’. Skm’s prose also leads us to expect such a kenning, as this group of citations is introduced as follows (SnE 1998, I, 35): Hvernig skal jǫrð kenna? Kalla Ymis hold ok … systir Auðs ok Dags ‘How should one refer to “earth”? Call it Ymir’s flesh and … sister of Auðr and Dagr’. However, this leaves the man-kenning base-word fleygjanda ‘flinger’ in l. 1 without a determinant. Various solutions have been proposed (see Notes to ll. 1, 4 and l. 4 below). The one tentatively advanced in the Text is to treat auðs/Auðs as an instance of apo koinou, a single word functioning as the determinant of both of the helmingr’s kennings. — [All]: Ms. U attributes the half-stanza to ‘Hallver’ (with -er abbreviated) rather than Hallfreðr. — [1]: As Kock (NN §510) points out, this line contains an extra syllable. The first two words must be elided, making því hykk equivalent to one syllable; cf. Hfr ErfÓl 1/1^I Þar hykk ‘There I believe’. — [1, 4] fleygjanda [auðs] ‘flinger [of riches] [GENEROUS MAN]’: Almost all previous eds reject this kenning for the reasons outlined in the Note to [All] above (Davidson 1983 is an exception, while SnE 1998 leaves the kenning incomplete). Most emend, either (Wisén 1886, 135; Skj B; Skald; Frank 1978, 63, 68) frægjan to frakkna ‘of spears’, which produces a correct kenning (fleygjanda frakkna ‘flinger of spears’) but lacks ms. support, or (Fidjestøl 1982, 104) fleygjanda to a seafarer-kenning such as fley-gand ‘ship-stave’ (unlikely due to the restricted sense of gandr, see LP: gandr) or fley-gæti ‘ship-guard’ (more plausible). Fidjestøl’s suggestions are attractive both because of the prominence of seafarer-kennings in the other ‘marriage’ stanzas of Hákdr (sts 5-8) and because the divergent ms. forms of fleygjanda imply scribal confusion. The solution proposed in the present edn follows Sveinbjörn Egilsson (SnE 1848-87, III) in positing an apo koinou construction in which auðs participates in two different kennings and must be understood differently in each one (auðr ‘riches’ here, the name of the giant Auðr in the other kenning). Puns on common nouns and proper names (jǫrð/Jǫrð) are a guiding conceit in Hákdr, and the audience would have been alert for a new variation on this rhetorical strategy, particularly one which linked the themes of riches/fertility and the land. Hallfreðr’s ErfÓl 16/1, 2, 4^I uses another homonym of the word here, auðr ‘empty’, in a zeugma (an eyewitness to the battle of Svolder sees Trana ok báða Naðra fljóta auða ‘“Crane” and both “Adders” [three of Óláfr Tryggvason’s warships] floating empty’). — [3] ítran (m. acc. sg.) ‘glorious’: The majority reading is taken here against R, whose text of this verse does not inspire confidence. Ms. R’s ítra (f. acc. sg.) is an acceptable alternative, and would qualify systur rather than menþverri. — [3] láta … eina ‘let … alone’: In prose this expression means ‘leave/divorce one’s wife’ (Fritzner: einn 5). Here the reference is presumably to Óðinn’s desertion of Jǫrð (cf. biðkvôn ‘waiting wife’, st. 5/4), or, alternatively, it could be taken to mean that he was reluctant to leave her alone, i.e. he desired her. — [4] systur Auðs ‘Auðr’s <giant’s> sister [= Jǫrð (jǫrð ‘earth’)]’: The giant Auðr is otherwise known only from SnE, where he is mentioned once in Gylf (SnE 2005, 13) and once in Skm (see Context), and Davidson (1983, 514) suggests he is a Snorronian invention, on the basis of a scribe’s addition of systr in U. It is true that only U reads systr (nom. pl., emended here to systur acc. sg.), but a word is needed to complete both syntax and metre, and as the mss offer no other candidates (B’s ‘þerssa’ cannot be construed in a meaningful way; see Davidson 1983 for some suggested emendations), and U’s reading makes good sense, it seems wisest to accept it.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. SnE 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
7. Fidjestøl, Bjarne. 1982. Det norrøne fyrstediktet. Universitet i Bergen Nordisk institutts skriftserie 11. Øvre Ervik: Alvheim & Eide.
8. Frank, Roberta. 1978. Old Norse Court Poetry: The Dróttkvætt Stanza. Islandica 42. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
9. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
10. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
11. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
12. Davidson, Daphne L. 1983. ‘Earl Hákon and his Poets’. D. Phil. thesis. Oxford.
13. SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
14. Internal references
15. Edith Marold 2017, ‘Snorra Edda (Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál)’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].
16. (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=112> (accessed 25 April 2024)
17. (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=113> (accessed 25 April 2024)
18. Diana Whaley 2012, ‘(Biography of) Óláfr Tryggvason’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 383.
19. Kate Heslop (ed.) 2012, ‘Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld Óttarsson, Erfidrápa Óláfs Tryggvasonar 1’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 403.