Anon Gát 3^III

Þá sá ek fljúga         þriðja sinni:
silki saumat         ok sænska menn,
Gunnlaugs bana         ok goða brenni,
kú kollótta         ok kvíslatré,
gnúp gildligan;         gettu, hvat þeir heita!

Þá sá ek fljúga þriðja sinni: saumat silki ok sænska menn, bana Gunnlaugs ok brenni goða, kollótta kú ok kvíslatré, gildligan gnúp; gettu, hvat þeir heita!

Then I saw fly a third time: sewn silk and Swedish men, Gunnlaugr’s slayer and burner of gods, cow without horns and a forked tree, a massive peak; guess what they are called!

Mss: 625(77r), 743ˣ(103r), 167b 3ˣ(14r)

Readings: [6] ok: í 167b 3ˣ    [10] gettu: ok gettu 743ˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 228-9, Skj BII, 248, Skald II, 129; SnE 1848, 239, LaufE 1979, 406-7.

Notes: [3] saumat silki ‘sewn silk’: The clue resolves to tjald (n.) ‘tapestry’ or ‘bedhangings’, a homonym of tjaldr (m.) ‘oystercatcher’, Hæmatopus ostralegus (Þul Fugla 4/5). Árni Magnússon has added this solution above the line in 743ˣ. — [4] sænska menn ‘Swedish men’: In LP: sœnskr and Skj B, Finnur Jónsson suggests Helsingjar, inhabitants of Hälsingland (ON Helsingjaland), a district in Sweden, and helsingjar ‘barnacle geese’, which seems to be the likely solution. See Notes to Gát 2/5, above, and Þul Sverða 8/7. Ms. 743ˣ is not annotated here, but 1562ˣ glosses svanir ‘swans’, printed in SnE 1848, though how this fits the clue is not clear. — [5] bana Gunnlaugs ‘Gunnlaugr’s slayer’: In Gunnlaugs saga, the eponymous hero Gunnlaugr ormstunga ‘Serpent-tongue’ is killed in a duel by his opponent, Hrafn (hrafn ‘raven’). The solution is added above the line in 1562ˣ. — [6] brenni goða ‘burner of gods’: In 743ˣ Árni Magnússon has added the note Már brenndi goðin ‘Már burnt the gods’, and 1562ˣ also has the gloss Már. Már is ‘seagull’ (Þul Fugla 1/8 and 7/4) and also a pers. n. but any other details about the incident referred to are now lost. Lbs 1199 4°ˣ and Lbs 756 4°ˣ claim Már brenndi goðin, les Kjalnesinga sǫgu ‘Már burnt the gods, read Kjalnesinga saga’, but in the extant version it is Búi Andríðsson, one of the major characters, who burns the temple. There is no extant text of the saga that mentions anyone called Már, and Búi is mockingly nicknamed hundr ‘dog’, but not anything to do with birds. There are also temple- and idol-burnings in Friðþjófs saga, Njáls saga,  Ǫrvar-Odds saga, Harðar saga, Hrafnkels saga and Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar, but none of the perpetrators (Friðþjófr, Hrappr, Oddr, Þorgeirr, Grímkell, and Óláfr respectively) share their names with birds (although Lbs 1116 4°ˣ does suggest ‘Hrapp’). In Hallfreðar saga (ch. 4, ÍF 8, 146) Már Jǫrundsson, who also appears in Ldn, Vatn and HrHalt, is nicknamed Blót-Már ‘Sacrifice-Már’ and described as allheiðinn ‘completely heathen’ in Hfr Lv 1/4^V (Hallfr 2), but this seems to be rather the opposite of what is required, since he would presumably then worship idols of the gods, not burn them. — [7] kollótta kú ‘cow without horns’: Árni Magnússon annotates ‘riupa’ (rjúpa; Þul Fugla 5/6) ‘ptarmigan’, apparently a name often given to cows: LP: kýr notes køer benævnes ofte således ‘cows are often named thus’. — [8] kvíslatré ‘a forked tree’: I.e. the homonyms súla ‘forked piece of wood used as a neck yoke to prevent pigs from escaping the pen’ (see Fritzner: súla 2) and súla ‘gannet’ (Þul Fugla 3/1). Kvíslatré is a hap. leg. in poetry and there is only one recorded instance in prose (in Reykd ch. 22, ÍF 10, 220; cf. ONP: kvíslartré). This gloss is provided in 1562ˣ. In 743ˣ Árni glosses svala ‘swallow’, but this likely resulted from his misreading of the word súla. — [9] gildligan gnúp ‘a massive peak’: Skj B proposes múli ‘mountain peak’, corresponding with tyrðilmúli ‘razorbill’ (Alca torda; Þul Fugla 4/6). Árni glossed ‘ha hella’, printed (háhella) in SnE 1848; this is not a known Old Norse word, but is clearly a cpd from há ‘high’ and hella ‘rock, table-land’, which fits the clue. If there was a corresponding bird-name, however, it is no longer known. Possibly cf. hávella ‘long-tailed duck’; see Note to Anon Gát 2/5. Ms. 1562ˣ glosses this line ‘lomur’; lómr is ‘red-throated diver (US ‘loon’)’ (Gavia stellata). The relevance to a ‘massive peak’ perhaps comes from such an Icelandic p. n. as Lómagnúpur, the 688m high promontory on the south coast, which features in Njáls saga (Nj ch. 133, ÍF 12, 346). This is unlikely to be the original solution, however.

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. SnE 1848 = Sveinbjörn Egilsson, ed. 1848. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar, eða Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál og Háttatal. Reykjavík: Prentsmiðja landsins.
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. 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. 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.
8. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
9. ÍF 12 = Brennu-Njáls saga. Ed. Einar Ólafur Sveinsson. 1954.
10. ÍF 8 = Vatnsdœla saga. Ed. Einar Ólafur Sveinsson. 1939.
11. ÍF 10 = Ljósvetninga saga. Ed. Björn Sigfússon. 1940.
12. Internal references
13. (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 19 April 2024)
14. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ǫrvar-Odds saga’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 804. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=35> (accessed 19 April 2024)
15. 2022, ‘ Anonymous, Harðar saga’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 919-944. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=38> (accessed 19 April 2024)
16. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Poems, Gátur 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. 634.
17. 2022, ‘ Anonymous, Njáls saga’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 1220-1313. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=55> (accessed 19 April 2024)
18. 2022, ‘ Anonymous, Hallfreðar saga’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 873-914. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=63> (accessed 19 April 2024)
19. (forthcoming), ‘ Anonymous, Reykdœla saga’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=67> (accessed 19 April 2024)
20. (forthcoming), ‘ Anonymous, Hrómundar þáttr halta’ 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=74> (accessed 19 April 2024)
21. (forthcoming), ‘ Anonymous, Vatnsdœla saga’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=128> (accessed 19 April 2024)
22. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Sverða heiti 8’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 804.
23. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Fugla heiti 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. 952.
24. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Fugla heiti 3’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 954.
25. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Fugla heiti 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. 955.
26. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Fugla heiti 5’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 956.
27. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2022, ‘Hallfreðar saga 2 (Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld Óttarsson, Lausavísur 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 874.
28. Not published: do not cite ()