Anon (FoGT) 4^III

The anonymous sts 4-7 all belong to the third chapter of FoGT in which the author treats the rhetorical figures of topographia, bethgraphia, cosmographia and chronographia, which all refer to aspects of the physical world. The chapter begins with topographia, or reference to a specific place, which the author exemplifies with Anon Nikdr 1. He continues with Anon (FoGT) 4-7, all of which are in dróttkvætt metre.

Leygs svelgr, en etr eigi,
íugtanni lið manna;
ganga menn ór munni
margreftum fletvargi.

{Íugtanni leygs} svelgr, en etr eigi, lið manna; menn ganga ór munni {margreftum fletvargi}.

{The bear of the flame} [HOUSE] swallows, but does not eat, the band of men; men issue from the mouth {of the many-raftered bench-wolf} [HOUSE].

Mss: W(112) (FoGT)

Readings: [3] menn: ‘m[…]nn’ W;    munni: ‘mvn[…]’ W

Editions: Skj AII, 215, Skj BII, 231, Skald II, 120; SnE 1848-87, II, 194-7, III, 154, FoGT 1884, 122, 244, FoGT 2004, 33, 61, 91-2, FoGT 2014, 4-5, 59.

Context: The prose text of FoGT introduces this helmingr with the following remark: hennar f(o)stsyster er bethgraphia, er fra husi er sagt ‘her [i.e. topographia’s] foster-sister is bethgraphia, when a house is described’. After the helmingr, the author comments: her talar skalldit af smið hvssíns ‘here the poet speaks of the structure of the house’.

Notes: [All]: This stanza appears in the Y version of LaufE among kennings for a house (LaufE 1979, 358), and in a similar environment in Resen’s Edda Islandorum (RE 1665(Gg)). The text of the word íugtanni ‘bear’ in l. 2 is correctly spelled in RE 1665, but not in LaufE, where the word is given as ‘jngtanne’. — [All]: There are no problems of interpretation concerning the helmingr itself, but the rhetorical figure of bethgraphia is to date unattested in medieval rhetorical handbooks. It is not listed in either of FoGT’s main sources, the Doctrinale of Alexander of Villa Dei or the Graecismus of Évrard of Béthune. The first element of the term bethgraphia derives from Hebrew beth ‘house’. — [2] íugtanni ‘the bear’: This cpd noun is a nickname for a bear, and can be used as a substitute for the personal names Bjǫrn or Bjarni. A good example, also in the context of the building of a house, is RKet Lv 1/6^IV, where one of the builders of a church commemorated in the stanza is referred to as íugtanni, his name being Bjarni. On the meaning of the cpd, see AEW: íugtanni and Note to Þul Bjarnar l. 11. The identity of the first element is obscure, but the second is cognate with tǫnn ‘tooth’. — [2] manna ‘of men’: The scribe of W has written a common mark of abbreviation over the <m>, as well as over the first <n>, suggesting, as Finnur Jónsson (Skj AII, 215 n.) observed, that he first intended to write menn, then corrected to manna without erasing the abbreviation over <m>. — [3] menn ‘men’: The <e> is obliterated by a hole; nevertheless, all earlier eds have printed menn with confidence. — [3] munni ‘the mouth’: The last two letters are covered by a large blot, but earlier eds have read munni without apparent difficulty. — [4] margreftum fletvargi ‘of the many-raftered bench-wolf [HOUSE]’: A dat. of possession. A playful but conventional kenning for a house. Both words are hap. leg., but fletvargr ‘bench-wolf’ is very similar to Eil Þdr 19/3 fletbjǫrn ‘bench-bear [HOUSE]’. As with íugtanni leygs ‘bear of the fire [HOUSE]’ (ll. 1, 2), this group of house-kennings is constructed with a base-word denoting a large animal, often a wild one (see Meissner 430).

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj A = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15a. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. A: Tekst efter håndskrifterne. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1967. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. 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.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. LaufE 1979 = Faulkes, Anthony, ed. 1979. Edda Magnúsar Ólafssonar (Laufás Edda). RSÁM 13. Vol. I of Two Versions of Snorra Edda from the 17th Century. Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, 1977-9.
6. 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.
7. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
8. FoGT 1884 = Björn Magnússon Ólsen, ed. 1884. Den tredje og fjærde grammatiske afhandling i Snorres Edda tilligemed de grammatiske afhandlingers prolog og to andre tillæg. SUGNL 12. Copenhagen: Knudtzon.
9. FoGT 2004 = Longo, Michele, ed. [2004]. ‘Il Quarto Trattato Grammaticale Islandese: Testo, Traduzione e Commento’. Dottorato di Ricerca in ‘Linguistica Sincronica e Diacronica’ (XV Ciclo). Palermo: Università degli Studi di Palermo, Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia.
10. FoGT 2014 = Clunies Ross, Margaret and Jonas Wellendorf, eds. 2014. The Fourth Grammatical Treatise. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
11. Internal references
12. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, The Fourth Grammatical Treatise’ 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=34> (accessed 26 April 2024)
13. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Poems, Nikulásdrápa 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. 566.
14. Edith Marold (ed.) 2017, ‘Eilífr Goðrúnarson, Þórsdrápa 19’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 117.
15. Elena Gurevich 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Bjarnar 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. 895. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3213> (accessed 26 April 2024)
16. Not published: do not cite (RKet Lv 1^IV)
17. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from the Fourth Grammatical Treatise 4’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 577.
18. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Laufás Edda’ 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=10928> (accessed 26 April 2024)