Snæbj Lv 2^III

Stjórnviðjar lætr styðja
stáls buðlunga máli
hlemmisverð við harðri
húflangan skæ dúfu.

{Máli buðlunga} lætr {hlemmisverð stáls} styðja {húflangan skæ stjórnviðjar} við harðri dúfu.

{The confidant of rulers} [RULER] lets {the powerful sword of the stern} [RUDDER] support {the long-hulled horse of the steering-tie} [SHIP] against the heavy wave.

Mss: R(36r), Tˣ(38r), W(82), U(35v) (SnE)

Readings: [1] Stjórn‑: so U, ‘Stjór‑’ all others;    ‑viðjar: viðrar U;    lætr: lét Tˣ, W    [2] buðlunga: dǫglinga U    [4] skæ: so Tˣ, U, sér R, ‘sę’ W;    dúfu: ‘þvfo’ U

Editions: Skj AI, 211, Skj BI, 201, Skald I, 105, NN §574; SnE 1848-87, I, 460-1, II, 337, III, 93, SnE 1931, 163, SnE 1998, I, 81.

Context: The stanza is cited in Skm (SnE) to illustrate possible ways to designate a king’s followers (here, máli buðlunga ‘confidant of rulers’).

Notes: [All]: This stanza has been much discussed with regard to syntax and meaning. (a) The present edn adopts the following interpretation: The subject of the sentence is máli buðlunga ‘the confidant of rulers’; the verbs are lætr styðja ‘lets support’; the object of lætr is hlemmisverð stáls ‘the powerful sword of the stern [RUDDER]’ (see Note to l. 2, 3); the object of styðja is húflangan skæ stjórnviðjar ‘the long-hulled horse of the steering-tie [SHIP]’ (see Note to l. 1) and styðja ‘support’ is completed by the prepositional phrase við harðri dúfu ‘against the heavy wave’. (b) Skj B offers the following interpretation: Buðlunga máli lætr húflangan stjórviðjar skæ styðja stáls hlemmisverð við harðri dúfu, translated as Kongens ven lader det langsidede skib støde til den hårde bølge med sin svære forstavns top ‘The king’s friend lets the long-sided ship thrust at the hard wave with the top of its heavy stem’. With regard to the meaning of the verb styðja Finnur Jónsson (LP: styðja 2) refers to Vsp 21/3-4 (NK 5) er Gullveigo | geirom studdo ‘as they ran Gullveig through with spears’ and Bragi Rdr 6/1-3 Støkkvir flaums stála lét mjǫk styðja niðja Gjúka ‘The impeller of the eddy of steel [BATTLE > WARRIOR = Jǫrmunrekkr] caused the descendants of Gjúki <legendary king> [= Hamðir and Sǫrli] to be greatly pressed’. (c) Kock (NN §574) rightly points out that the prep. við is superfluous if the verb styðja means ‘run through’ and he is also right that hlemmisverð cannot be a dat. He offers the following interpretation: Stáls buðlunga máli lætr stjórnviðjar hlemmisverð styðja húflangan skæ við harðri dúfu which he translates as Vapenhövdingars förtrogne låter starka styrbandssvärdet stödja sidobordens långa fåle emot våldsam våg ‘The confidant of weapon-chieftains lets the strong sword of the steering-tie support the long foal of the ship-planks against heavy sea’. That interpretation is unsatisfactory for two reasons. First of all, it is highly unusual for a term for ‘ruler’ (here, buðlunga ‘of rulers’, l. 2) to be qualified by a term for ‘weapon’ (here, stáls ‘of the weapon’, l. 2). Second, according to this interpretation the base-word skæ ‘horse’ (l. 4) is deprived of its determinant stjórnviðjar ‘of the steering-tie’ (l. 1). Kock attempts to solve this problem by extracting the first element húf- ‘hull’ from the cpd adj. húflangan ‘long-hulled’ and taking it as the determinant in the ship-kenning, as is shown by his translation sidobordens långa fåle ‘the long foal of the ship-planks’. This would involve the tmesis húf- langan ‑skæ, but such a construction is unprecedented in skaldic poetry. — [1] stjórnviðjar ‘of the steering-tie’: According to Falk (1912, 75) stjórnvið f. is a cord made of thin branches or fibrous strands with which the rudder was attached to the hull. See also LP: stjórnvið and Þul Skipa 5/5. — [1, 3] styðja … við ‘support … against’: see Fritzner: styðja 4. — [2] máli buðlunga ‘the confidant of rulers [RULER]’: Normally máli means ‘agreement’, but here it seems to be synonymous with rúni ‘confidant’. — [2, 3] hlemmisverð stáls ‘the powerful sword of the stern [RUDDER]’: This unique, ad hoc metaphorical kenning is based on an analogy between steering a ship with a rudder and drawing a sword through the waves. There could also be an analogy of the form of a sword and a rudder. Stál can mean both ‘(steel) weapon’ and ‘stem’ and also ‘stern’ (see Jesch 2001a, 150 and cf. Bǫlv Hardr 5/4^II), and here it must mean ‘stern’, because it is used in a kenning for ‘rudder’. The cpd hlemmisverð is difficult to translate. There is only one record of the verb hlemma and according to Fritzner: hlemma it is not clear what it means. But there are numerous compounds with hlemmi- as the first element: hlemmidrifa ‘booming or huge wave’ (LP), and in later Icelandic hlemmibraut ‘paved way’, hlemmigata or hlemmivegur ‘flat and broad way’ (all in Sigfús Blöndal 1920-4; for further examples see there). It seems that the first element in these compounds had the meaning ‘something excellent, great’, etc. Another interpretation is given by Faulkes (SnE 1998, II, 312). He regards -sverð as an ofljóst: brandr ‘sword’ = brandr ‘ornamental strips of wood along the sides of a ship’s prow’. Hlemmisverð stáls would then be ‘the crashing ornaments of the prow’, and he takes that as the obj. of styðja ‘push’. The problem with this interpretation is that the kenning for ‘ship’ cannot be integrated in a sentence like ‘the ruler lets the prow push against the wave’.

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. Jesch, Judith. 2001a. Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age: The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse. Woodbridge: Boydell.
8. Sigfús Blöndal. 1920-4. Islandsk-dansk ordbog / Íslensk-dönsk orðabók. Reykjavík, Copenhagen and Kristiania (Oslo): Verslun Þórarins B. Þorlákssonar / Aschehoug.
9. Falk, Hjalmar. 1912. Altnordisches Seewesen. Wörter und Sachen 4. Heidelberg: Winter.
10. 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.
11. NK = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. I: Text. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
12. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
13. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. 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 27 April 2024)
17. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Skipa heiti 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. 869.
18. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Bǫlverkr Arnórsson, Drápa about Haraldr harðráði 5’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 290-1.
19. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Bragi inn gamli Boddason, Ragnarsdrápa 6’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 36.
20. Not published: do not cite ()