OBarr Frag 2^III

Útan gnýr á eyri
Ymis blóð fara góðra.

{Blóð Ymis} gnýr útan á eyri … góðra fara.

{Ymir’s <giant’s> blood} [SEA] roars from out on the sand-bank … of good ships.

Mss: R(26v), Tˣ(27r), W(57), U(29v), B(5r), 744ˣ(31r) (SnE)

Readings: [1] Útan: ‘uta[…]’ W    [2] góðra: ‘goð[…]a’ B, ‘godra’ 744ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 143, Skj BI, 135, Skald I, 74, NN §2018; SnE 1848-87, I, 324-5, SnE 1931, 116, II, 316, 528, III, 51, SnE 1998, I, 37.

Context: See Introduction. The couplet is again ascribed to Ormr. For the various forms of his nickname in the mss at this point, see SnE 1998, I, 140 (Textual n. to p. 36/30).

Notes: [All]: The fragment is so small that a definitive translation is not possible. The couplet probably formed the last lines of a stanza or helmingr such that góðra fara ‘of good ships’ (l. 2) or possibly ‘of good journeys’ (if fara is gen. pl. of fǫr ‘journey’) was dependent on something other than á eyri ‘on the sand-bank’, the only possible connection in the couplet we have. The possibility that the couplet completed a stanza or helmingr is supported by the fact that the scribe of W left nearly a line blank after the ascription to Ormr and before the couplet, suggesting that he was expecting to add another two lines of poetry before it. — [2] blóð Ymis ‘Ymir’s <giant’s> blood [SEA]’: A kenning dependent on an Old Norse creation myth, in which the god Óðinn and his two brothers Vili and Vé murder the primeval giant Ymir and fashion the cosmos from his body-parts. They make the sea from his blood. The myth is narrated in Gylf (SnE 2005, 10-12) and alluded to in several poems of the Poetic Edda.

References

1. Bibliography
2. 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.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
6. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
7. SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
8. Internal references
9. (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 24 April 2024)