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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Anon (Vǫlsa) 6I

Wilhelm Heizmann (ed.) 2012, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Lausavísur from Vǫlsa þáttr 6’ 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. 1098.

Anonymous LausavísurLausavísur from Vǫlsa þáttr
567

Beri þér beytil         fyrir brúðkonur!
Þær skulu vingul         væta í aftan.
Þiggi Maurnir         þetta blæti!
En þú, dóttir bónda,         drag þú at þér Vǫlsa!

Beri þér beytil fyrir brúðkonur! Þær skulu væta vingul í aftan. Þiggi Maurnir þetta blæti! En þú, dóttir bónda, drag þú at þér Vǫlsa!

Carry the pintle before the bridesmaids! They shall moisten the dong this evening. May Maurnir receive this offering! But you, farmer’s daughter, you pull Vǫlsi towards you!

Mss: Flat(122ra) (Flat); 292ˣ(55r) (Vǫlsa)

Readings: [5] Þiggi Maurnir: abbrev. as ‘.þ. m.’ Flat

Editions: Skj AII, 220, Skj BII, 238, Skald II, 123; Flat 1860-8, II, 334 (Vǫlsa); Guðbrandur Vigfússon 1860, 136, CPB II, 382, Edd. Min. 124, Schröder 1933, 81.

Context: The son of the house takes hold of Vǫlsi, brandishes it at his sister, and speaks a stanza which continues in the same obscene tone that he adopted at the beginning of the poem (st. 2).

Notes: [1-4]: Cf. Þry 30/3-6: Berið inn hamar, | brúði at vígia, | leggit Miǫllni | í meyiar kné ‘Bring in the hammer to consecrate the bride, put Mjǫlnir in the maiden’s lap’ (NK 115). The hammer is a widespread fertility symbol (Kommentar II, 570), and in this context it is equally as ambiguous as kné (Kommentar II, 571). The two stanzas are connected by references to penis (beytill, hamarr), bride (brúðkona, brúðr), and the female genitals (indirectly: væta ‘moisten’, directly: kné ‘lap’; cf. Fritzner: kné 1). — [1] beytil ‘the pintle’: Also attested as a personal nickname, related to bauta ‘beat’ (AEW: beytill), cf. OE bȳtel, bīetl ‘hammer’. The plant name góibeytill, for field horsetail (Equisetum arvense L), which is found in Ldn (ÍF 1, 273) and Bárðar saga (ÍF 13, 110), offers an interesting parallel (Heizmann 1993a, 21). The name refers to the fertile sporangial shoots of the plant that appear in the spring. Their phallic shape has given rise to names with a second element referring to the penis, e.g. Ger. dialect Perdsjlöt ‘horse-prick’, Pfåffenschwånz ‘priest-prick’ or Dan. hundepik ‘dog-prick’, rævepik ‘fox-prick’, præstepintel ‘priest-prick’ (see Marzell and Paul 1943-79, II, 237, 245; Lange 1959, 533, 536); cf. also Eng. cuckoo-pintle/pint (Arum Maculatum), containing pintle or pint ‘penis’, also ‘bolt, pin’. — [2] brúðkonur ‘the bridesmaids’: Usually the term brúðkona refers to the woman who sits next to the bride on the bench. Here, on the other hand, all female members of the household are addressed as potential ‘brides’ of Vǫlsi (cf. Näsström 2002, 153). It has also been suggested that brúðkonur refers to the Maurnir either as an equivalent (Olrik and Ellekilde 1926-51, I, 167; Ström 1954, 28) or in terms of a ritual role-play (Steinsland and Vogt 1981, 98-9, 102). For the possibility that Maurnir is pl., see Note to st. 4/5.

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  3. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
  4. CPB = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and F. York Powell, eds. 1883. Corpus poeticum boreale: The Poetry of the Old Northern Tongue from the Earliest Times to the Thirteenth Century. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon. Rpt. 1965, New York: Russell & Russell.
  5. Flat 1860-8 = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and C. R. Unger, eds. 1860-8. Flateyjarbók. En samling af norske konge-sagaer med indskudte mindre fortællinger om begivenheder i og udenfor Norge samt annaler. 3 vols. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
  6. 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.
  7. NK = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. I: Text. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
  8. ÍF 1 (parts 1 and 2) = Íslendingabók; Landnámabók. Ed. Jakob Benediktsson. 1968. Rpt. as one volume 1986.
  9. Kommentar = See, Klaus von et al. 1997-2012. Kommentar zu den Liedern der Edda. 7 vols. Heidelberg: Winter.
  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. Ström, Folke. 1954. Diser, nornor, valkyrjor. Fruktbarhetskult och sakralt kungadöme i Norden. Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademiens Handlingar, Filologisk-filosofiska serien 1. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell.
  12. Heizmann, Wilhelm. 1993a. Wörterbuch der Pflanzennamen im Altwestnordischen. Ergänzungsbände zum RGA 7. Berlin: de Gruyter.
  13. Näsström, Britt-Mari. 2002. Blot: Tro och offer i det förkristna norden. Stockholm: Norstedts Förlag.
  14. Olrik, Axel and Hans Ellekilde, eds. 1926-51. Nordens gudeverden. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Gad.
  15. Schröder, Franz Rolf. 1933. Quellenbuch zur germanischen Religionsgeschichte. Trübners philologische Bibliothek 14. Berlin and Leipzig: Walter de Gruyter.
  16. Steinsland, Gro and Kari Vogt. 1981. ‘“Aukinn ertu Uolse ok vpp vm tekinn”. En religionshistorisk analyse av Vǫlsa þáttr i Flateyjarbók’. ANF 96, 87-106.
  17. ÍF 13 = Harðar saga. Ed. Þórhallur Vilmundarson and Bjarni Vilhjálmson. 1991.
  18. Lange, Johan. 1959. Ordbog over Danmarks plantenavne. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
  19. Internal references
  20. (forthcoming), ‘ Anonymous, Landnámabók’ in Guðrún Nordal (ed.), Poetry on Icelandic History. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 4. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=25> (accessed 28 March 2024)
  21. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Vǫlsa þáttr’ 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. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=28> (accessed 28 March 2024)
  22. Not published: do not cite ()
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