Sveinn Norðrdr 3^III

Dœtr Hlés á við blésu.

{Dœtr Hlés} blésu á við.

{The daughters of Hlér <= Ægir>} [WAVES] blew against the ship.

Mss: A(8r), W(110) (TGT)

Readings: [1] Dœtr: ‘dættr’ W

Editions: Skj AI, 418, Skj BI, 388, Skald I, 192; SnE 1848-87, II, 180-1, 425, TGT 1884, 30, 114, 231-2, TGT 1927, 85, 108.

Context: This line is cited by Óláfr Þórðarson in ch. 16 of the Málskrúðsfræði section of TGT on various figures and tropes. He uses Sveinn’s line to exemplify a kind of irony, antiphrasis, which, he says, occurs when a single noun means the opposite of its lexical sense. The example relates to the personal name Hlér, which Óláfr must have understood to mean ‘Calm one’, for he says (TGT 1927, 85): Hér er sær kallaðr hlér, þvíat hann hlýr allra minst ‘Here the sea is called Hlér, because it does not protect at all’.

Notes: [All]: The full verse context of this line can only be guessed at. Björn Magnússon Ólsen (TGT 1884, 232) suggested that it might be the last line of the same helmingr as st. 2 above. — [1] dœtr Hlés ‘the daughters of Hlér <= Ægir> [WAVES]’: If this kenning is the subject of blésu ‘blew’, the personification presumably extends to the idea of wind-swept waves, beating upon the ship’s side. Hlér is an alternative name for the sea-giant Ægir (SnE 1998, I, 1): Einn maðr er nefndr Ægir eða Hlér ‘There was a person called Ægir or Hlér’. — [1] á við ‘against the ship’: For the sense of viðr ‘wood, tree’ as ‘[wooden] ship’, see LP: viðr 5.

References

1. Bibliography
2. TGT 1884 = Björn Magnússon Ólsen, ed. 1884. Den tredje og fjærde grammatiske afhandling i Snorres Edda tilligemed de grammatiske afhandlingers prolog og to andre tillæg. SUGNL 12. Copenhagen: Knudtzon.
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. 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.
6. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
7. TGT 1927 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1927b. Óláfr Þórðarson: Málhljóða- og málskrúðsrit. Grammatisk-retorisk afhandling. Det kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. Historisk-filologiske meddelelser 13, 2. Copenhagen: Høst.
8. Internal references
9. (forthcoming), ‘ Óláfr hvítaskáld Þórðarson, The Third Grammatical Treatise’ in Tarrin Wills (ed.), The Third Grammatical Treatise. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=32> (accessed 28 April 2024)