Ólsv Kristdr 2III
Edith Marold (ed.) 2017, ‘Óláfr svartaskáld Leggsson, Kristsdrápa 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 315.
Tungl ‘celestial bodies’
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tungl (noun n.; °-s; -): moon, heavenly body
trygg ‘faithful’
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tryggr (adj.; °tryggan/tryggvan; compar. -ari/-vari; superl. -jastr/-astr): loyal < tryggvinr (noun m.)
kennings
Sterkr tryggvinr engla,‘Powerful faithful friend of angels, ’
= God
Powerful faithful friend of angels, → God
vinr ‘friend’
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vinr (noun m.; °-ar, dat. -/(-i OsvReyk 92.17); -ir): friend < tryggvinr (noun m.)
[1] ‑vinr: ‘‑umur’ 2368ˣ
kennings
Sterkr tryggvinr engla,‘Powerful faithful friend of angels, ’
= God
Powerful faithful friend of angels, → God
engla ‘of angels’
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1. engill (noun m.; °engils; englar): angel
kennings
Sterkr tryggvinr engla,‘Powerful faithful friend of angels, ’
= God
Powerful faithful friend of angels, → God
talið ‘the number’
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tal (noun n.; °-s; *-): talk, speech; number
dœgr ‘of days and nights’
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dœgr (noun n.; °-s; -): day and night; 24h period
notes
[2] dœgr ‘days and nights’: Dœgr could mean the twelve-hour period of the day (or night) as well as the full twenty-four hours (see Introduction to Þul Dœgra).
megin ‘the power’
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1. megin (noun n.; °-s, dat. magni/megni/megin(HirðB 398¹⁹); -): might, strength; very
[2] megin: megir both
notes
[2] megin lœgis ‘the power of the sea’: Both mss have ‘meger’, i.e. megir m. nom. pl. ‘sons’, which makes no sense syntactically. The reading was undoubtedly introduced by the compiler of this section of LaufE (or its exemplar), based on the assumption that megir lœgis ‘sons of the sea’ was a kenning for ‘men’ (cf. Context to st. 1 above). The emendation is in keeping with earlier eds. Megin ‘power’ also occurs in Vsp 5/9-10 (NK 2): máni þat né vissi, | hvat hann megins átti ‘the moon did not know what power it had’. It is not immediately clear what the creation of celestial bodies had to do with the power of the sea, but it probably refers to high and low tide, phenomena caused by the gravitational forces of the heavenly bodies and the earth’s rotation (see Clunies Ross and Gade 2012, 202).
lœgis ‘of the sea’
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lœgir (noun m.): sea
notes
[2] megin lœgis ‘the power of the sea’: Both mss have ‘meger’, i.e. megir m. nom. pl. ‘sons’, which makes no sense syntactically. The reading was undoubtedly introduced by the compiler of this section of LaufE (or its exemplar), based on the assumption that megir lœgis ‘sons of the sea’ was a kenning for ‘men’ (cf. Context to st. 1 above). The emendation is in keeping with earlier eds. Megin ‘power’ also occurs in Vsp 5/9-10 (NK 2): máni þat né vissi, | hvat hann megins átti ‘the moon did not know what power it had’. It is not immediately clear what the creation of celestial bodies had to do with the power of the sea, but it probably refers to high and low tide, phenomena caused by the gravitational forces of the heavenly bodies and the earth’s rotation (see Clunies Ross and Gade 2012, 202).
fekk ‘found’
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2. fá (verb; °fǽr; fekk, fengu; fenginn): get, receive
notes
[3] hlýrnir fekk stjǫrnum stað ‘the sky found a place for the stars’: Cf. Vsp 5/7-8 (NK 2): stiǫrnor þat né visso, | hvar þær staði átto ‘the stars did not know where they should be placed’. For hlýrnir as a heiti for ‘sky, heaven’, see Note to Þul Himins I l. 13.
hlýrnir ‘the sky’
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hlýrnir (noun m.): heaven, heavenly body
notes
[3] hlýrnir fekk stjǫrnum stað ‘the sky found a place for the stars’: Cf. Vsp 5/7-8 (NK 2): stiǫrnor þat né visso, | hvar þær staði átto ‘the stars did not know where they should be placed’. For hlýrnir as a heiti for ‘sky, heaven’, see Note to Þul Himins I l. 13.
stað ‘a place’
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1. staðr (noun m.; °-ar/-s; -ir): place
notes
[3] hlýrnir fekk stjǫrnum stað ‘the sky found a place for the stars’: Cf. Vsp 5/7-8 (NK 2): stiǫrnor þat né visso, | hvar þær staði átto ‘the stars did not know where they should be placed’. For hlýrnir as a heiti for ‘sky, heaven’, see Note to Þul Himins I l. 13.
stjǫrnum ‘for the stars’
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stjarna (noun f.; °*-u; *-ur): star
notes
[3] hlýrnir fekk stjǫrnum stað ‘the sky found a place for the stars’: Cf. Vsp 5/7-8 (NK 2): stiǫrnor þat né visso, | hvar þær staði átto ‘the stars did not know where they should be placed’. For hlýrnir as a heiti for ‘sky, heaven’, see Note to Þul Himins I l. 13.
sterkr ‘Powerful’
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sterkr (adj.): strong
kennings
Sterkr tryggvinr engla,‘Powerful faithful friend of angels, ’
= God
Powerful faithful friend of angels, → God
ok ‘and’
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3. ok (conj.): and, but; also
aldir ‘the ages’
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ǫld (noun f.; °; aldir): people, age
merkja ‘to mark’
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merkja (verb): mark, signify
notes
[4] merkja ‘to mark’: Merkja is taken here (with SnE 1848-87 and Skj B) as a verb (‘mark’). Kock (NN §1333) treats this as a noun ‘of the stars’, gen. pl., qualifying aldir (aldir merkja ‘the ages of the stars’). According to that interpretation, the first clause would be construed as gaft tungl, talið dœgr, megin lœgis, aldir merkja ‘you gave celestial bodies, the number of days and nights, the power of the sea, the ages of the stars’. Aside from the fact that it is difficult to see what ‘(you gave) the ages of the stars’ would mean, it is out of keeping with Old Norse cosmology, which was very much preoccupied with computation (see Note to [All] above, as well as Clunies Ross and Gade 2012).
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As st. 1 above.
Given the theme of creation, the referent of the kenning tryggvinr engla ‘faithful friend of angels’ (l. 1) must be ‘God’ rather than ‘Christ’. The content of the stanza is very reminiscent of the creation of the world according to Vsp (sts 5-6), especially st. 6/5-10 (NK 2): nótt oc niðiom | nǫfn um gáfo, | morgin héto | oc miðian dag, | undorn oc aptan, | árom at telia ‘[they] gave names to the night and the waning moon, they named the morning and the middle of the day, the afternoon and the evening, so as to keep count of the years’. See also Vafþr 22-5. Ártali ‘year-counter’ is also a heiti for ‘moon’ (see Þul Tungls l. 6, Alv 14/6 and Skm, SnE 1998, I, 85). See also Gen. I.14.
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