Feima Lv 1^VIII (GrL 2)

Feima ek heiti;         fædd var ek norðarla,
Hrímnis dóttir         ór háfjalli.
Hér er systir mín         hálfu fremri
Kleima at nafni         komin til sjóvar.

Ek heiti Feima; ek var fædd norðarla, dóttir Hrímnis, ór háfjalli. Hér er systir mín, hálfu fremri, Kleima at nafni, komin til sjóvar.

I am called Feima; I was born in northern parts, daughter of Hrímnir <giant>, from the high mountain. Here my sister, twice as courageous, Kleima by name, has come to the sea-shore.

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

Editions: Skj AII, 288, Skj BII, 309, Skald II, 163-4; FSN 2, 145, FSGJ 2, 187, Anderson 1990, 60-1, 111, 444-5; Edd. Min. 85.

Context: In the saga this stanza follows GrL 1 and is introduced by the words: Sú kvað vísu, er nær honum stóð ‘The one [i.e. the giantess] who stood near him spoke a stanza’.

Notes: [1-2]: With the exception of the name Feima these lines are identical in wording to Ket 17/1-2, in which the troll-woman Forað identifies herself (in a similar episode) in answer to a question put to her by Grímr’s father Ketill. — [1] Feima: Several mss (1006ˣ, 173ˣ, 342ˣ, 109a IIˣ) offer the reading Finna ‘Saami woman’, a variant which makes use of the associations between the north and the Finnar (Saami people), who were credited with magical powers (see Nesheim 1970, 7-14; cf. the power ascribed to the father of Feima and Kleima in GrL 4). Occasionally one and the same figure is described both as giant and Saami, for example the father of Snjófríðr ‘Snow-Beauty’ in HHárf ch. 35 (ÍF 26, 125-7). Snjófríðr herself is called finna in Anon Mhkv 11/6^III. Nevertheless Feima is the preferred reading, not only because it occurs in the two oldest mss but also because it rhymes with Kleima, a name which only occurs here: there are several other Old Norse examples of siblings whose names rhyme with one another (cf. Kommentar III, 870 and a further example in Gautr, FSGJ 4, 4-5). The word feima occurs as a name in Rþ 25/6 (one of the daughters of Karl, the progenitor of the peasant class) and is used elsewhere as a poetic term for ‘woman’ (LP: feima). The etymology of the word is unclear (AEW: feima), but in Skm the word feima is said to connote shyness (SnE 1998, I, 107; cf. Note to Þul Kvenna I l. 4^III). If the name Feima in GrL evokes such associations then it is manifestly ironic, since it stands in great contrast to the bold and ‘forward’ behaviour of the two giantesses, cf. Feima’s description of her sister Kleima as hálfu fremri ‘twice as courageous’ (as herself). — [2, 4] ek var fædd norðarla; ór háfjalli ‘I was born in northern parts; from the high mountain’: An origin in the north and in the mountains is typical of giants, cf. such kennings for ‘giant’ as bergbúi ‘mountain dweller’ Hym 2/1 or fjallbúi (same meaning) in Ǫrv 89/1. — [3] dóttir Hrímnis ‘daughter of Hrímnir <giant>’: The name Hrímnir is well-attested as a common name for a giant; the earliest example occurs in the giantess-kenning drós Hrímnis ‘woman of Hrímnir’ in Eil Þdr 18/6^III. Since the name Hrímnir is derived from hrím which can mean both ‘(hoar)frost’ and ‘soot’, it is not clear whether Hrímnir means ‘Frosty’ or ‘Sooty’; cf. Þul Jǫtna I 1/5^III. See Note to Ket 13/1-3. — [7] Kleima: This name is considered to be etymologically related to the Old Norse verb kleima ‘besmear, besmirch’ (HálfdEyst ch. 16, FSGJ 4, 271), and to the synonymous verb klæma used figuratively in the sense ‘shame, mock’ (AEW: kleima; ÍO: 1 kleima). In New Norwegian dialects the noun kleima denotes something ‘sticky’ or a person who is slow (cf. also the New Norwegian verb kleima ‘stick’), while the noun kleim variously refers to a person who is ‘forward’ or ‘clumsy’ (cf. Ross 1895-1913: kleim; Aasen 2003: kleima and Kleima; NO: I kleima and kleime). In Modern Icelandic the noun kleima means ‘blotch, scratch’. All of these words are pejorative; if the name Kleima was understood to mean anything (and not simply invented to rhyme with Feima), then it may perhaps have been interpreted as ‘smear, blotch’ (cf. the characterisation of the milkmaid Beyla in Lok 56).

References

1. Bibliography
2. FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
5. 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.
6. ÍO = Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon. 1989. Íslensk orðsifjabók. Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans.
7. Kommentar = See, Klaus von et al. 1997-2012. Kommentar zu den Liedern der Edda. 7 vols. Heidelberg: Winter.
8. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
9. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
10. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
11. 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.
12. Anderson, Sarah M. 1990. ‘The Textual Transmission of Two Fornaldarsögur: Ketils saga høings and Gríms saga loðinkinna’. Ph.D. thesis. Cornell University…
13. HálfdEyst = Hálfdanar saga Eysteinssonar.
14. Nesheim, Asbjørn. 1970. ‘Samisk trolldom’. KLNM 15, 7-14.
15. Ross, Hans. 1895-1913. Norsk Ordbog. Tillæg til ‘Norsk Ordbog’ af Ivar Aasen. 6 parts. Oslo, Bergen, Tromsø: Universitetsforlaget. Facsimile rpt. 1971.
16. Aasen 2003 = Kruken, Kristoffer and Terje Aarset, eds. 2003. Ivar Aasen: Norsk ordbog med dansk forklaring. New edition. Originally published 1873. Oslo: Det norske samlaget.
17. NO = [Anonymous] 1966-. Norsk ordbok. Ordbok over det norske folkemålet og det nynorske skriftmålet. 9 vols (continuing). Oslo: Det norske samlaget.
18. Internal references
19. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Gautreks saga’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 241. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=9> (accessed 30 April 2024)
20. 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 30 April 2024)
21. (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 30 April 2024)
22. (forthcoming), ‘ Heimskringla, Haralds saga hárfagra’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=140> (accessed 30 April 2024)
23. Roberta Frank (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Poems, Málsháttakvæði 11’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1225.
24. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Jǫtna heiti I 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. 707.
25. Edith Marold (ed.) 2017, ‘Eilífr Goðrúnarson, Þórsdrápa 18’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 115.
26. Not published: do not cite ()
27. Not published: do not cite ()
28. Not published: do not cite ()
29. Elena Gurevich 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Kvenna heiti’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 772. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3191> (accessed 30 April 2024)
30. Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Gríms saga loðinkinna 1 (Grímr loðinkinni, Lausavísur 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 289.
31. Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Gríms saga loðinkinna 4 (Kleima Hrímnisdóttir, Lausavísa 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 293.
32. Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Ketils saga hœngs 13 (Ketill hœngr, Lausavísur 8)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 563.
33. Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Ketils saga hœngs 17 (Forað, Lausavísur 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 567.
34. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Ǫrvar-Odds saga 89 (Ǫrvar-Oddr, Ævidrápa 19)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 902.