Bjarni Frag 4^III

This stanza (Bjarni Frag 4) is recorded only in mss 742ˣ (main ms.) and 1496ˣ of LaufE and is not included in Skj (or Skald). It was first published by Jón Helgason (1966a, 178-9). The helmingr is composed in direct speech and could have been a lausavísa or part of a poem. It could be a speech by a man who is forced by an executioner to tell the truth or to confess his offences. Since the executioner is called ‘frightener of the meeting-wheel of the marrow-world [BONE > TORTURE-WHEEL > EXECUTIONER]’, it calls to mind a wheel used as an instrument of execution. Breaking people on a wheel was a particularly gruesome method of torture and execution. A criminal’s bones were broken by striking a wheel or a hammer against his limbs, after which the body was woven through the wheel and displayed on a pole (Schild 1997, 202-4; Althoff, Goetz and Schubert 1998, 332).

Enn lægi mér, œgir,
eirsa*m*r við þik fleira,
mœtihjóls, at mæla,
mergheims, á hraðbergi.

Enn lægi mér á hraðbergi, eirsa*m*r, at mæla fleira við þik, {œgir {mœtihjóls {mergheims}}}.

Still I would be prepared, as a peaceful man, to speak more with you, {frightener {of the meeting-wheel {of the marrow-world}}} [BONE > TORTURE-WHEEL > EXECUTIONER].

Mss: 742ˣ(19v), 1496ˣ(50v) (LaufE)

Readings: [1] lægi (‘lęgi’): lagi 1496ˣ    [2] eir‑: eyr‑ 1496ˣ;    ‑sa*m*r: ‘sarmir’ all

Editions: Jón Helgason 1966a, 178-9.

Context: The helmingr provides an example of a kenning for leggir ‘limbs, extremities’.

Notes: [1, 4] lægi mér á hraðbergi ‘I would be prepared’: According to Jón Helgason (1966a, 179) the expression e-m liggr orð á hraðbergi for eloquence, though unattested in Old Icelandic, is common in the language later on. He translates it in this stanza as es würde mir leicht fallen ‘it would be easy for me’ (cf. also Sigfús Blöndal 1920-4: hraðberg 2: liggja á hraðbergi: være rede, ved Haanden, være i Beredskab ‘be ready, at hand, be prepared’). — [1, 3, 4] œgir mœtihjóls mergheims ‘frightener of the meeting-wheel of the marrow-world [BONE > TORTURE-WHEEL > EXECUTIONER]’: Jón Helgason (1966a, 179) interpreted mœtihjól mergheims ‘the wheel meeting/opposing the bone’ as a kenning for ‘shield’ and the frightener who made use of the shield as ‘man’. This interpretation of the kenning is unconvincing; Meissner 166-76 does not list any examples of shield-kennings with bones or other body parts as determinants. The interpretation of the kenning in the present edn is based on the medieval practice of breaking people on a wheel, where the criminal’s bones were broken by striking a wheel or a hammer against his limbs (see also Anon (FoGT) 17, Note to [All]). Mœtihjól mergheims ‘the meeting-wheel of the marrow-world [BONE]’, then, is an entirely suitable kenning for ‘wheel of torture’, which, combined with the base-word œgir ‘frightener’, forms an equally fitting expression for ‘executioner’. The present interpretation is supported by Frag 5 below, in which a woman releases a tormented man ‘from above’.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. 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.
4. Jón Helgason. 1966a. ‘Verse aus der Laufás-Edda’. In Rudolph et al. 1966, 175-80.
5. Sigfús Blöndal. 1920-4. Islandsk-dansk ordbog / Íslensk-dönsk orðabók. Reykjavík, Copenhagen and Kristiania (Oslo): Verslun Þórarins B. Þorlákssonar / Aschehoug.
6. Schild, Wolfgang. 1997. Die Geschichte der Gerichtsbarkeit. Hamburg: Nikol.
7. Internal references
8. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from the Fourth Grammatical Treatise 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. 590.
9. unallocated (ed.) 2017, ‘Bjarni ...ason, Fragments 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. 24.
10. (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 27 April 2024)