ÚlfrU Húsdr 6^III

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.

Mss: R(22r), Tˣ(22r), W(47), U(27v) (SnE)

Readings: [1] ‑ǫflugr: ‘‑aufligr’ Tˣ    [3] þat: so all others, om. R    [4] reyrar: so all others, ‘reyrǫz’ R;    leggs: logs Tˣ, W    [5] ‑gymnir: ‘‑gymrir’ Tˣ, W, ‘‑genrir’ U    [6] frônum: frǫmum U    [7] grunn: grun U

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

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.

Notes: [All]: The stanza’s second helmingr is separated from the first in mss R, Tˣ 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. — [All]: 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. — [2] fjall-Gauts ‘of the mountain-Gautr <man of the Gautar> [GIANT]’: A giant-kenning based on the pattern ‘people of the mountains’, in which ‘people’ is replaced by a specific ethnicity (in this case Gautar, the inhabitants of Götaland, Sweden). Comparable kennings are collected in Marold (1990a, 109-10). Although Gautr is also a name for Óðinn, it is less likely to represent the god here, because deity-names are rarely base-words in giant-kennings (see Meissner 258). — [3] reyni ‘of the tester’: This base-word is unusual in a giant-kenning, but is paralleled by gætir ‘keeper’, vǫrðr ‘guardian’ and váttr ‘witness, knower’ (see Meissner 258). — [4] leggs reyrar ‘of the bone of the reed [STONE]’: This kenning is presumably constructed according to the pattern ‘bone of the water’ or ‘bone of the land’, but it cannot be established whether reyrar ‘of the reed’ represents ‘water’ or ‘land’ here (Meissner 89-90). That reyrr may be used in the sense ‘land’ is suggested by snake-kennings with base-word þvengr ‘strap’ where reyr- ‘reed’ and sef- ‘rush’ occur as determinants in variation with terms for ‘land’ (Mogk 1880, 326; Meissner 115). (b) Frank (1978, 111) gives a completely different explanation of leggs reyrar as ‘the shaft of the twisted cord’, deriving reyrr from the weak verb reyra ‘tie, fasten, wind around’. The entire giant-kenning would then mean ‘tester (or enemy) of the fishing-line’ and would be well suited to the context because it would relate to the giant’s severing the line from which Miðgarðsormr was hanging. However, neither leggr nor reyrr is attested in the meanings assumed by Frank. — [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. — [5, 6] Víðgymnir vaðs Vimrar ‘the Víðgymnir <giant> of the ford of Vimur <river> [= Þórr]’: This kenning alludes to an episode described in Eil Þdr sts 5-8 and in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 24-5). On his way to meet the giant Geirrøðr, Þórr must wade across a mighty river. Þdr 8 does not call it the Vimur, rather, the name comes from a stanza of an otherwise unknown eddic poem cited in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 25). The prose narrative and the stanza might also explain why the poet uses a giant’s name as the base-word in this Þórr-kenning. The river swells up until it reaches Þórr’s shoulders, at which point he addresses the river (loc. cit.): Vaxattu nú, Vimur, | … veiztu ef þú vex, | at þá vex mér ásmegin | jafnhátt upp sem himinn ‘Do not grow now, Vimur, … you know that if you grow, then the power of an Áss will rise in me just as high as the sky’. At the same time the kenning, in which Þórr appears as the ‘giant’ of the river, corresponds to the kenning pattern ‘hostile creature/enemy of sth./sby’. There is no satisfactory explanation for the name Víðgymnir, but the prose context of the Húsdr stanza indicates it is a giant’s name (SnE 1998, I, 17): Hér er hann kallaðr jǫtunn Vimrar vaðs ‘Here he is called the giant of the ford of the Vimur’. Sveinbjörn Egilsson (LP (1860): Viðgymnir) explains the word as the appellative transgressor ‘one who crosses’; cf. also SnE 1848-87, I, 258; LP: Víðgymnir. — [8] hlaut svá innan minnum ‘thus [the hall] received [decoration] inside with memorable pictures’: This clause, which reappears in st. 10/4, is the poem’s refrain (stef). It refers to the images that inspired the poem, but as it stands, it is problematic for several reasons. The subject is missing, and minnum (dat. pl.) cannot be the object of hlaut, because hljóta is construed with the acc. (see the examples in Fritzner: hljóta). Faulkes (SnE 1998, II, 313) translates the phrase as ‘come to be decorated (with)’, and notes that it is ‘probably only half the refrain, which would then have been a klofastef ‘split refrain’; the rest of the sentence, including the object, would have appeared in the last line of another (lost) stanza’. If so, the sentence can be completed as follows: ‘Thus [the hall] received [decoration] inside with memorable pictures’. Faulkes’ suggestion is plausible, and it is supported by a similar construction in Edáð Banddr^I, where the finite verb occurs in position 1 of the first line but the corresponding subject is suspended until the next stef-line (cf. Note to Edáð Banddr 9/1, 2^I and NN §1853A).

References

1. Bibliography
2. 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.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
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. LP (1860) = Sveinbjörn Egilsson, ed. 1860. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis. Copenhagen: Societas Regia antiquariorum septentrionalium.
8. Frank, Roberta. 1978. Old Norse Court Poetry: The Dróttkvætt Stanza. Islandica 42. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
9. 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.
10. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
11. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
12. SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
13. Marold, Edith. 1990a. ‘Skaldendichtung und Mythologie’. In Pàroli 1990, 107-30.
14. Marold, Edith. 2000a. ‘Die Húsdrápa als kosmologisches Gedicht’. In Barnes et al. 2000, 290-302.
15. Marold, Edith. 2000b. ‘Kosmogonische Mythen in der Húsdrápa des Úlfr Uggason’. In Dallapiazza et al. 2000, 281-92.
16. Mogk, Eugen. 1880. ‘Untersuchungen ueber die Gylfaginning. II: Die Quellen der Gylfaginning und ihr Verhältnis zu den sog. Eddaliedern. Anhang Ulfr Uggason’. BGDSL 7, 203-334.
17. Internal references
18. 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].
19. (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 20 April 2024)
20. (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning’ 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=113> (accessed 20 April 2024)
21. Russell Poole 2012, ‘ Eyjólfr dáðaskáld, Bandadrápa’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 454. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1158> (accessed 20 April 2024)
22. Edith Marold with the assistance of Vivian Busch, Jana Krüger, Ann-Dörte Kyas and Katharina Seidel, translated from German by John Foulks 2017, ‘ Eilífr Goðrúnarson, Þórsdrápa’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 68. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1170> (accessed 20 April 2024)
23. Margaret Clunies Ross 2017, ‘ Gamli gnævaðarskáld, Poem about Þórr’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 189. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1199> (accessed 20 April 2024)
24. Edith Marold with the assistance of Vivian Busch, Jana Krüger, Ann-Dörte Kyas and Katharina Seidel, translated from German by John Foulks 2017, ‘ Úlfr Uggason, Húsdrápa’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 402. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1492> (accessed 20 April 2024)
25. Russell Poole (ed.) 2012, ‘Eyjólfr dáðaskáld, Bandadrápa 9’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 468.
26. Not published: do not cite ()
27. Edith Marold (ed.) 2017, ‘Eilífr Goðrúnarson, Þórsdrápa 8’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 91.
28. Margaret Clunies Ross 2017, ‘ Bragi inn gamli Boddason, Þórr’s fishing’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 46. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3094> (accessed 20 April 2024)