SnSt Lv 7^III

The helmingr (SnSt Lv 7), edited by Kari Ellen Gade, is transmitted only in ms. W towards the end of Orms-Eddu-brot (Skm, SnE) in a section that illustrates kennings for women’s hair. It is not recorded in the corresponding sections that were copied from W in the X and Y versions of LaufE (LaufE 1979, 277-8, 355-6) and in RE 1665(Ff3). The half-stanza is attributed to Snorri Sturluson, but nothing is known about the circumstances surrounding its composition, nor can any certain date be assigned to it.

Komk inn, þars sat svanni
svanna vænstr í ranni;
Gerðr leysti sú svarðar
svarðakr raðar garða.

Komk inn, þars sat svanni, vænstr svanna, í ranni; {sú Gerðr {garða {raðar svarðar}}} leysti {svarðakr}.

I came in where a woman, the most beautiful of women, sat inside the hall; {that Gerðr <goddess> {of the fences {of the ridge of the scalp}}} [HEAD > HEADBANDS > WOMAN] was loosening her {scalp-field} [HAIR].

Mss: W(169) (SnE)

Readings: [2] vænstr: ‘[…]enstr’ W    [4] ‑akr: ‘[…]kr’ W;    garða: garði W

Editions: Skj AII, 79, Skj BII, 90, Skald II, 49, NN §2193; SnE 1848-87, II, 500, III, 182.

Context: The helmingr illustrates kennings for women’s hair in which the base-words are words for ‘head’, ‘parting of the hair’, ‘cheek’, ‘neck’, ‘scalp’ or ‘forehead’ and the determinants are words for ‘forest’, ‘field’, ‘grass’ or ‘trees’.

Notes: [All]: The metre is dunhent ‘echoing-rhymed’, which is also attested in RvHbreiðm Hl 65-6 and in SnSt Ht 24 (see Notes there). — [1-2] svanni, vænstr svanna ‘a woman, the most beautiful of women’: For svanni lit. ‘clever, wise’, see AEW: svanni and Note to Þul Kvenna I 1/1. This is a m. noun; hence vænstr m. nom. sg. ‘the most beautiful’. The <v> in vænstr is no longer visible, but it has been supplied by earlier eds. — [3, 4] sú Gerðr garða raðar svarðar ‘that Gerðr <goddess> of the fences of the ridge of the scalp [HEAD > HEADBANDS > WOMAN]’: Emendation is needed, because garði m. dat. sg. ‘fence, enclosure, yard, house’ (so W) cannot be accommodated syntactically in this clause. The present edn follows Skj B, which is least intrusive in terms of emendation. Kock (NN §2193; Skald) further emends svarðakr m. acc. sg. ‘scalp-field’ to svarðakrs gen. sg. and construes sú Gerðr garða svarðar leysti raðar svarðakrs which can be translated as ‘that Gerðr <goddess> of the houses of the scalp [HEADDRESSES > WOMAN] was loosening her rows of the scalp-field [HAIR > LOCKS OF HAIR]’. — [4] svarðakr ‘her scalp-field [HAIR]’: The <a> in -akr ‘field’ is obliterated by a hole in the ms. but is reasonably certain since both svǫrð ‘scalp’ and akr ‘field’ are given in the prose that precedes the stanza (so also earlier eds).

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. LaufE 1979 = Faulkes, Anthony, ed. 1979. Edda Magnúsar Ólafssonar (Laufás Edda). RSÁM 13. Vol. I of Two Versions of Snorra Edda from the 17th Century. Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, 1977-9.
7. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
8. Internal references
9. 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].
10. (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 16 May 2024)
12. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Kvenna heiti 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 772.
13. Guðrún Nordal (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Lausavísur’ in Guðrún Nordal (ed.), Poetry on Icelandic History. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 4. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1378> (accessed 16 May 2024)
14. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill 65’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1073.
15. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 24’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1130.
16. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Laufás Edda’ 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=10928> (accessed 16 May 2024)