Þjóð Haustl 12^III

Heyrðak svá, þat síðan
sveik apt ása leiku
hugreynandi Hœnis
hauks flugbjalfa aukinn.
Ok lómhugaðr lagði
leikblaðs Reginn fjaðrar
ern at ǫglis barni
arnsúg faðir Mǫrnar.

Heyrðak svá, þat {hugreynandi Hœnis}, aukinn {flugbjalfa} hauks, síðan sveik apt {leiku ása}. Ok {lómhugaðr faðir Mǫrnar}, {Reginn {leikblaðs fjaðrar}}, lagði ern arnsúg at {barni ǫglis}.

I have heard thus, that {the thought-trier of Hœnir} [= Loki], strengthened with a hawk’s {flight-skin} [WINGS], afterwards recovered {the playmate of the gods} [= Iðunn] by trickery. And {the deceit-minded father of Mǫrn <= Skaði>} [= Þjazi], {the Reginn <legendary smith> {of the play-blade of the feather}} [WING > GIANT = Þjazi], directed a swift eagle-sucking at {the hawk’s child} [HAWK = Loki].

Mss: R(25v), Tˣ(26v) (SnE)

Readings: [1] Heyrðak (‘Heurda ec’): so Tˣ, Heyrðat R    [2] apt: ept R, Tˣ;    leiku: so Tˣ, leikum R    [4] hauks: so Tˣ, hauðs R;    aukinn: aukin R, Tˣ    [6] Reginn: regin Tˣ;    fjaðrar: fjaðran Tˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 18-19, Skj BI, 16, Skald I, 11, NN §§138, 159; SnE 1848-87, I, 314-15, III, 46-7, SnE 1931, 112, SnE 1998, I, 33.

Context: As for st. 1.

Notes: [All]: According to Skm (SnE 1998, I, 2), after the gods had threatened Loki with death or torture, he became so frightened that he undertook to journey to Jǫtunheimar and recover Iðunn, if Freyja would lend him her falcon shape (valshamr). He flew in this shape north to Jǫtunheimar and discovered Þjazi rowing out to sea, having left Iðunn at home alone. Loki found her, turned her into a nut, and flew back to Ásgarðr with her in his claws. Þjazi soon discovered his loss, adopted his eagle shape and set off in hot pursuit of Loki, ok dró arnsúg í flugnum ‘and caused an eagle-sucking in his flying’. See Note to ll. 7, 8 below. — [1] þat ‘that’: A rare example of þat used for the conj. at ‘that’ (cf. LP: þat conj., = at; Heggstad et al. 2008: þat 2). — [2] apt: Lit. ‘back’. To be understood with the verb svíkja ‘trick, cheat’ in the sense ‘tricked back’, i.e. ‘recovered by trickery’. Both mss have ept, prep. ‘after’ (in sense of motion, with dat.) or ‘after’ in time, with acc. Ept does not fit the context here, so most eds have emended. Skj B and Skald emend to opt ‘often’ and understand l. 2 as an intercalary, emending the mss’ ása to ôsu and choosing R’s leikum to read sveik opt ôsu leikum ‘he [Loki] often betrayed the gods with his tricks’. They then emend flugbjalfa ‘flight-skin’ (l. 4) to fló bjalfa ‘flew [strengthened with a hawk’s] skin/form’ in order to provide a finite verb for the helmingr’s þat-clause. Such emendations are not necessary to achieve good sense, as Holtsmark (1949, 36) and Marold (1983, 166-7) have shown. — [5-8]: Several possible syntactic arrangements of these lines have been proposed. Lómhugaðr ‘deceit-minded’ (l. 5) can be taken either with Reginn, legendary smith name (l. 6) or faðir ‘father’ (l. 8). Both nouns form kennings for Þjazi. Most eds and commentators have opted for the adj. to qualify faðir Mǫrnar (l. 8), but Kock (NN §138), followed by Holtsmark (1949, 36), favours the connection with Reginn. Marold (1983, 167, 185-7) argues on the basis of the kenning-type that lómhugaðr faðir Mǫrnar is the more likely arrangement. The adj. ern ‘swift, energetic’ (l. 7) may be construed with reginn and the kenning of which it forms part (see following Note) or with arnsúg ‘eagle-sucking’ (l. 8), as argued by Kock (NN §138) and Marold (1983, 167). For the gen. form Mǫrnar, see Note to st. 6/4 above. — [6] Reginn leikblaðs fjaðrar ‘the Reginn <legendary smith> of the play-blade of the feather [WING > GIANT = Þjazi]’: An unusual kenning, dependent for its meaning on the details of the underlying myth. Reginn has been treated here as the pers. n. of the legendary and evil smith, foster-father of Sigurðr and brother to Fáfnir (and also a dwarf-name, see Note to Þul Dverga 6/4). As such, Reginn is an appropriate base-word for a kenning for the giant Þjazi. Leikblað fjaðrar ‘play-blade of the feather’ is without parallel as a kenning-type, but must refer to the beating of the eagle’s wings in flight. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B; 1933, 1-2) transposes leik- from blað to reginn on the ground that ‘Reginn of the wing’ is not an appropriate kenning for a giant and construes ern leikreginn blaðs fjaðrar ‘the swift play-Reginn of the blade of the feather’. Marold (1983, 167) argues that, if leik- is understood as a verbal addition to the wing-kenning, it is not irregular in terms of kenning-type. — [7, 8] ern arnsúg ‘a swift eagle-sucking’: This phrase, with Skm’s very close verbal parallel, noted above, has not been treated as a kenning. It presumably refers to the wind caused by the eagle’s wings as he pursues Loki or possibly to a magical force the eagle was able to exert upon him.

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. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
8. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
9. Marold, Edith. 1983. Kenningkunst: Ein Beitrag zu einer Poetik der Skaldendichtung. Quellen und Forschungen zur Sprach- und Kulturgeschichte der germanischen Völker, new ser. 80. Berlin: de Gruyter.
10. Holtsmark, Anne. 1949. ‘Myten om Idun og Tjatse i Tjodolvs Haustlǫng’. ANF 64, 1-73.
11. Internal references
12. (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 25 April 2024)
13. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Dverga heiti 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. 704.