Gríml Lv 1^VIII (GrL 1)

One year, when there is a famine, Grímr sails north to Finnmǫrk (Finnmark, land of the Saami) to fish and hunt. In the middle of the night, he is awakened by the sound of laughter. He goes down to the shore and finds two troll-women shaking the stem and the stern post of his boat as if they were going to pull it apart. These five stanzas contain insults and threats which Grímr loðinkinni and the troll-women Feima and Kleima hurl at one another in GrL ch. 1 (FSGJ 2, 186-8).

Hvat heita þær         hrauns íbúur,
er skaða vilja         skipi mínu?
Ykr hefik         einar sénar
ámátligastar         at yfirlitum.

Hvat heita {þær íbúur hrauns}, er vilja skaða skipi mínu? Ykr einar hefik sénar ámátligastar at yfirlitum.

What are the names of {those female inhabitants of the lava field} [TROLL-WOMEN], who want to harm my ship? You two alone are the most overwhelming in appearance I have [ever] seen.

Mss: 343a(58r), 471(57v) (GrL)

Editions: Skj AII, 287, Skj BII, 308, Skald II, 163; FSN 2, 145, FSGJ 2, 186-7, Anderson 1990, 60, 111, 444; Edd. Min. 85.

Context: This stanza is introduced by the words: Grímr mælti ok kvað vísu ‘Grímr spoke and uttered a stanza’.

Notes: [All]: The troll-women are described in a manner traditional for troll-women and giantesses: they are ‘inhabitants of the lava-field’ (cf. Note to l. 2) and are overwhelmingly hideous in appearance; cf. Schulz (2004, 147-53); Ket 16. They are furthermore not the only such beings in Old Norse literature who attack the ships of the hero: in a similar episode in Ket ch. 3 (FSGJ 2, 158) Grímr’s father Ketill hœngr also sails to Finnmark; he too awakens when a troll-woman shakes the stem of his ship; in HjǪ (FSGJ 4, 207) nine sea-ogresses tear the ships apart; in other sagas giants or giantesses attack ships at sea (Frið, FSGJ 3, 87; Ǫrv 1888, 44, 46); cf. HHj 13, 18-19, 23, 26. — [2] þær íbúur hrauns ‘those female inhabitants of the lava field [TROLL-WOMEN]’: This kenning is not attested elsewhere, but there are synonymous kennings for ‘giant’ in other texts: hraunbúi ‘lava-dweller’ (Hym 38/5, HHj 25/5), hraundrengr ‘rock-gentleman’ (Þjóð Haustl 17/6^III). While the f. íbúa ‘female inhabitant’ is a hap. leg., the corresponding m. noun íbúi ‘male inhabitant’ is attested in Greg (Unger 1877, 1, 393). — [7] ámátligastar ‘the most overwhelming’: In poetry the adj. ámátligr is only used of giants and a valkyrie (HHund I 38/3) and occurs in a similar stanza in HjǪ, in which the hero of that saga asks a giantess who she is (HjǪ 11, FSGJ 4, 205); in Þul Jǫtna I 6/7^III it is also predicated of giants. Ámátligr is derived from the noun máttr ‘might, strength’ and the prefix á- has intensifying character, hence ámátligr can be translated as ‘overwhelmingly strong’. It is sometimes interpreted as meaning ‘abominable, frightful’ (cf. Gering 1903: á-mátlegr; Heggstad et al. 2008: ámátligr; ÍO: ámát(t)legur).

References

1. Bibliography
2. Unger, C. R., ed. 1877. Heilagra manna søgur. Fortællinger og legender om hellige mænd og kvinder. 2 vols. Christiania (Oslo): Bentzen.
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. ÍO = Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon. 1989. Íslensk orðsifjabók. Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans.
6. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
7. 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.
8. Anderson, Sarah M. 1990. ‘The Textual Transmission of Two Fornaldarsögur: Ketils saga høings and Gríms saga loðinkinna’. Ph.D. thesis. Cornell University…
9. Gering, Hugo. 1903. Vollständiges Wörterbuch zu den Liedern der Edda. Halle: Waisenhaus. Rpt. 1971. Hildesheim: Olms.
10. Greg = Gregors saga páfa.
11. Schulz, Katja. 2004. Riesen: Von Wissenshütern und Wildnisbewohnern in Edda und Saga. Skandinavistische Arbeiten 20. Heidelberg: Winter.
12. Ǫrv 1888 = Boer, R. C., ed. 1888. Ǫrvar-Odds saga. Leiden: Brill.
13. Internal references
14. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Friðþjófs saga ins frœkna’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 190. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=8> (accessed 25 April 2024)
15. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Hjálmþés saga ok Ǫlvis’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 488. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=49> (accessed 25 April 2024)
16. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ketils saga hœngs’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 548. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=71> (accessed 25 April 2024)
17. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Gríms saga loðinkinna’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 288. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=76> (accessed 25 April 2024)
18. Not published: do not cite (Gríml^VIII)
19. Not published: do not cite (Keth^VIII)
20. Not published: do not cite ()
21. Not published: do not cite ()
22. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Þjóðólfr ór Hvini, Haustlǫng 17’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 457.
23. Richard L. Harris (ed.) 2017, ‘Hjálmþés saga ok Ǫlvis 11 (Hjálmþér Ingason, Lausavísur 5)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 503.
24. Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Ketils saga hœngs 16 (Ketill hœngr, Lausavísur 11)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 566.