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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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ÚlfrU Húsdr 1III

Edith Marold (ed.) 2017, ‘Úlfr Uggason, Húsdrápa 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. 405.

Úlfr UggasonHúsdrápa
12

text and translation

Hjaldrgegnis telk Hildar
hugreifum Ôleifi
(hann vilk at gjǫf Grímnis)
geðfjarðar lô (kveðja).

Telk hugreifum Ôleifi {lô {geðfjarðar} {{Hildar hjaldr}gegnis}}; vilk kveðja hann at {gjǫf Grímnis}.
 
‘I recite the water of the mind-fjord [BREAST] of the promoter of the noise of Hildr <valkyrie> [(lit. ‘noise-promoter of Hildr’) BATTLE > = Óðinn > POEM] for the glad-hearted Óláfr; I want to summon him to the gift of Grímnir <= Óðinn> [POEM].

notes and context

The helmingr is cited in Skm (SnE) among other stanzas illustrating kennings for ‘poetry’.

Mss R, , W and B give a version of the first line (Hoddmildum tér Hildar) that does not generate a poem-kenning, because lô geðfjarðar ‘water of the mind-fjord [BREAST]’ needs a term for Óðinn as determinant, and only hildar ‘of battle’ or ‘of Hildr’ is available. Such a poem-kenning would follow the pattern of Egill Hfl 1/2, 3V (Eg 34) marr munstrandar Viðris ‘sea of the mind-beach [BREAST] of Viðrir <= Óðinn> [POEM]’. Ms. U provides the necessary Óðinn-kenning, hjaldrgegnis Hildar ‘of the promoter of the noise of Hildr <valkyrie> [BATTLE > = Óðinn]’, and the U version has therefore been adopted in the present edn (so also Skj B and Skald). SnE 1998 follows R, but this results in an unacceptable word order (see Note to l. 4 geðfjarðar below). — This stanza has all the characteristics of an opening stanza of a drápa presented to a ruler (cf. Eskál Vell 1I). It addresses the one to be honoured by name, uses a special formula for the invitation to listen to the poem (see Note to ll. 3, 4) and contains one extended poem-kenning as well as another. The theme of the mead of poetry is taken up again in sts 9 and 12.

readings

sources

Text is based on reconstruction from the base text and variant apparatus and may contain alternative spellings and other normalisations not visible in the manuscript text. Transcriptions may not have been checked and should not be cited.

editions and texts

Skj: Ulfr Uggason, 1. Húsdrápa 1: AI, 136, BI, 128, Skald I, 71; SnE 1848-87, I, 250, II, 307, 522, III, 14, SnE 1931, 94, SnE 1998, I, 14.

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