Gill Lv 1^VIII (Gautr 2)

Heimsliga         er ek veik hendi til,
        er ek kom við kinn konu.
Lítil lyf kveða         höfð til lýða sona;
        af því var hann Gautrekr getinn.

Er ek veik hendi heimsliga til, er ek kom við kinn konu. Kveða lítil lyf höfð til sona lýða; hann Gautrekr var getinn af því.

I moved my hand foolishly, when I touched the woman’s cheek. They say little substance is required for [to make] the sons of men; that fellow Gautrekr was begotten from that.

Mss: 590b-cˣ(2v), 152(197vb), papp11ˣ(3v), 567XIV γ(1v), 164hˣ(3v), 194cˣ(2r) (Gautr)

Readings: [1] Heimsliga: hendi minni 567XIV γ, ‘bendi eyk’ 164hˣ    [2] er ek veik hendi til: so 152, papp11ˣ, ek veik hendi til 590b‑cˣ, ‘ek glætda (?) heimskliga’ 567XIV γ, ‘glærada heimsliga’ 164hˣ, vildi mér til 194cˣ    [3] er: ok 152, þá er 567XIV γ, 164hˣ, at 194cˣ;    ek: om. 164hˣ;    kinn konu: konu kinn 194cˣ    [4] Lítil: ‘litid’ 567XIV γ, 164hˣ, 194cˣ;    lyf: efni 194cˣ    [4, 5] kveða höfð til lýða sona: kveða lýða sonar 152, þat (?) kveða lýðir vera 567XIV γ, kveði til lýða þrífa 164hˣ, til lýða sona 194cˣ    [6] af því var hann Gautrekr getinn: so papp11ˣ, 164hˣ, af því var hann Gautrekr görr 590b‑cˣ, því var hann Gautrekr getinn 152, en af því var þó Gautrekr getinn 567XIV γ, af því varð hann Gautrekr getinn 194cˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 322, Skj BII, 342, Skald II, 184, NN §3292; Gautr 1664, 13, FSN 3, 11, Gautr 1900, 8-9, 56-7, FSGJ 4, 8; Edd. Min. 121.

Context: After Skafnǫrtungr, his wife and their servant had passed over the family cliff, their children decide to avoid any temptation to sexual intercourse by wrapping themselves up in woollen clothing fastened with wooden pins. Snotra realises that she is pregnant and about to give birth, so she loosens her dress so she can be touched. While she pretends to be asleep, her brother Gillingr accidentally touches her cheek. Noticing her shape, he thinks this action had made her pregnant and speaks stanza 2.

Notes: [All]: Gillingr is a giant name in Old Norse myth (cf. SnE 1998 II, 462). For Gillingr, see also Þul Jǫtna II 2/5^III and Note there. — [1] heimsliga ‘foolishly’: A common variant of heimskliga (cf. ANG §291. 6); the latter spelling occurs in mss papp11ˣ, 567XIV γ and 194cˣ. — [2] er: See Note to Gautr 1/3. — [5] kveða ‘they say’: The reading of most mss; both Skj B and Skald emend to kveð ‘I say’, presumably for metrical reasons. — [6] hann Gautrekr ‘that fellow Gautrekr’: The use of the formula hann ‘he’ (or other pers. pron.) plus a pers. n. occurs infrequently in late medieval Icelandic poetry (LP: hann), although it is found reasonably often in prose texts and has become a common colloquial idiom in later Icelandic usage. It occurs in Anon Lil 43/2^VII (see Note there) and 47/1, as well as Anon Sól 20/3^VII.

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. FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
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. ANG = Noreen, Adolf. 1923. Altnordische Grammatik I: Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer. 1st edn. 1884. 5th unrev. edn. 1970. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
8. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
9. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
10. Edd. Min. = Heusler, Andreas and Wilhelm Ranisch, eds. 1903. Eddica Minora: Dichtungen eddischer Art aus den Fornaldarsögur und anderen Prosawerken. Dortmund: Ruhfus. Rpt. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
11. Gautr 1900 = Ranisch, Wilhelm, ed. 1900. Die Gautrekssaga in zwei Fassungen. Palaestra 11. Berlin: Mayer & Müller.
12. Gautr 1664 = Verelius, Olaus, ed. 1664. Gothrici & Rolfi Westrogothiæ Regum Historia. Lingua antiqua Gothica conscripta. Uppsala: Curio.
13. Internal references
14. Carolyne Larrington and Peter Robinson (eds) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Sólarljóð 20’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 309.
15. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Jǫtna heiti II 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 721.
16. Martin Chase (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Lilja 43’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 613-14.
17. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Gautreks saga 1 (Gauti konungr, Lausavísa 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 245.