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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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ÚlfrU Húsdr 6III

Edith Marold (ed.) 2017, ‘Úlfr Uggason, Húsdrápa 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. 415.

Úlfr UggasonHúsdrápa
567

text and translation

Fullǫflugr lét fellir
fjall-Gauts hnefa skjalla
— ramt mein vas þat — reyni
reyrar leggs við eyra.
Víðgymnir laust Vimrar
vaðs af frônum naðri
hlusta grunn við hrǫnnum.
Hlaut innan svá minnum.

{Fullǫflugr fellir {fjall-Gauts}} lét hnefa skjalla við eyra {reyni {leggs reyrar}}; þat vas ramt mein. {Víðgymnir vaðs Vimrar} laust {grunn hlusta} af frônum naðri við hrǫnnum. Hlaut svá innan minnum.
 
‘The most powerful killer of the mountain-Gautr <man of the Gautar> [GIANT > = Þórr] let his fist slam against the ear of the tester of the bone of the reed [STONE > GIANT]; that was a mighty injury. The Víðgymnir <giant> of the ford of Vimur <river> [= Þórr] struck the ground of the ears [HEAD] off the gleaming serpent near the waves. Thus [the hall] received [decoration] inside with memorable pictures.

notes and context

The stanza’s two helmingar are cited successively in Skm (SnE) illustrating Þórr-kennings. After citing the stanza Snorri explains that Þórr is here called the giant of the ford of Vimur, and that Vimur is a river that Þórr waded when he went to the dwelling of Geirrøðr.

The stanza’s second helmingr is separated from the first in mss R, and W by a brief prose link (enn kvað Úlfr ‘again Úlfr said’). In ms. U, the two helmingar are given as one stanza although the initial <V> of Viðgymnir is written out in the margin, and there is a marginal <v> for vísa. Ms. U’s treatment of the two helmingar as one stanza is adopted in Skj and Skald and in the present edn. — The stanza portrays the giant’s punishment and the killing of Miðgarðsormr. Because the preceding st. 5 deals with the giant’s fear during this fishing trip, the present stanza may have been preceded by a now lost stanza depicting the cutting of the fishing-line (Marold 2000a, 293; Marold 2000b, 289). On this motif see Introduction to sts 3-6. — [5-8]: The second helmingr describes the killing of Miðgarðsormr as Þórr decapitates it (laust grunn hlusta af frônum naðri ‘struck the ground of the ears [HEAD] off the gleaming serpent’. Úlfr’s version of this episode differs from Gylf (SnE 2005, 45), where Hár states that in his opinion Miðgarðsormr is alive: En ek hygg hitt vera þér satt at segja at Miðgarðsormr lifir enn ok liggr í umsjá ‘And I believe that it is true to tell you that Miðgarðsormr is still alive and is lying in the sea surrounding the earth.’ He admits, however, that there are others who believe that Þórr struck the head off the serpent. Other surviving attestations of the myth (Bragi Þórr, Hym) do not explicitly say that the monster was killed. Only Ggnæv Þórr concurs with Húsdr.

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 6: AI, 137, BI, 129, Skald I, 72; SnE 1848-87, I, 258-9, II, 309-10, III, 18-19, SnE 1931, 96, SnE 1998, I, 17.

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