Þul Orrostu 2^III

Sóta, morð ok víg,         sókn ok íð,
dolg, ógn, tara,         drima ok ímun,
þá es orrosta,         ok ørlygi,
hríð ok etja,         Herþǫgn, þrima.

Sóta, morð ok víg, sókn ok íð, dolg, ógn, tara, drima ok ímun, þá es orrosta, ok ørlygi, hríð ok etja, Herþǫgn, þrima.

Struggle, killing and slaughter, assault and deed, enmity, terror, combat, noise and onslaught, then there is battle, and doom, storm and agression, Herþǫgn, din.

Mss: R(42v), Tˣ(44v), C(12r), A(18v), B(8v), 744ˣ(66v) (SnE)

Readings: [1] Sóta: sóti Tˣ, sókn A, B    [2] sókn: ‘sotti’ A, om. B;    ok: dolg A, B;    íð: om. Tˣ, ógn A, B    [3] dolg: dynr A, ok dynr B;    ógn: gnýr A, B    [4] drima: drífa Tˣ, B;    ok: om. A;    ímun: ‘mo᷎n’ B    [7] etja: ‘ætna’ A, ‘etna’ B

Editions: Skj AI, 662, Skj BI, 663, Skald I, 327, NN §§995, 3138; SnE 1848-87, I, 563, II, 475-6, 559, 619, SnE 1931, 200, SnE 1998, I, 118.

Notes: [1] sóta (f.) ‘struggle’: According to AEW: sóta, this heiti is a loanword from Finnish (cf. Finnish sota ‘battle’). Mss A and B have sókn f. ‘assault’ (see l. 2), as do the LaufE mss. According to Finnur Jónsson (1926-8: sóta), this heiti is used several times in the rímur, but it is not otherwise attested in skaldic poetry. — [2]: Skj B (followed by Skald) combines the readings of the R, Tˣ, C and A, B redactions and renders this line as sókn, dolg ok ógn ‘assault, enmity and terror’. Ms. A reads (normalised) sótti dolg ógn ‘attacked enmity terror’, and ms. B has dolg ógn, as do the LaufE mss (spelled as one word). Hence it appears that the scribe of A may have added sótti to provide the necessary alliteration, or else the word could have been present in his exemplar but in the form of a marginal gloss or correction. — [2] íð (f.) ‘deed’: Or ‘restless motion’. Although this word is found in poetry, it never occurs as a heiti for ‘battle’. Finnur Jónsson (LP: íð) doubts that íð is the correct form and omits it in Skj B (so also Skald), because it is left out in mss Tˣ, A and B (see Note below). — [3]: This line is given as dynr, gnýr, tara ‘din, clash, combat’ in Skj B and Skald, following A (B has ok dynr gnýr tara). — [3] ógn (f.) ‘terror’: This is the name of a river in Þul Á 2/3. In mss A and B, the heiti ógn is given in l. 2 and followed by dynr m. ‘din’ and gnýr m. ‘clash’ (l. 3) (so also Skj B and Skald). Both words are frequently used as base-words in kennings for ‘battle’ (cf. LP: dynr; gnýr), but neither occurs as a poetic term for ‘battle’. — [3] tara (f.) ‘combat’: This heiti is probably a f. nomen actionis from the Germanic strong verb *teran ‘tear, rent, lacerate’ (cf. Goth. distairan, gatairan ‘rip, destroy’, OE teran, OHG zeran ‘tear, lacerate’). See also OE taru ‘tear, rent’, OHG zar ‘tear’. There is no reliable evidence that this heiti was used in skaldic poetry. The word is omitted from the list in the LaufE mss. — [4] drima (f.) ‘noise’: A hap. leg. The word is probably identical with þrima f. ‘sound’ (l. 8), because in such compounds as eggþrima ‘edge-clash’ þ > ð or d (Falk 1889c, 266; AEW: drima). Thus the original meaning must be ‘uproar, noise’. In mss B and Tˣ drima is replaced by drífa f. ‘driving, blowing, drifting snow’, which frequently occurs as a base-word in kennings for ‘battle’ (cf. LP: drífa 1) but never as a heiti for ‘battle’. See also Þul Ǫrvar 1/3. In the LaufE mss, this word is rendered as ‘druna’ (papp10ˣ(49v), 2368ˣ(121)) and ‘drima’ (743ˣ(92r)), which shows that drífa is probably an independent innovation (lectio facilior) in both Tˣ and B. — [7] etja (f.) ‘aggression’: There is no evidence that this word was used as a term for ‘battle’. The word is omitted in the LaufE mss. — [8] Herþǫgn: Not attested elsewhere as a cpd. Most likely the name of a valkyrie, lit. ‘one who welcomes a host’ (the second element ‑þǫgn is also a valkyrie-name; see Þul Valkyrja 2/7). — [8] þrima (f.) ‘din’: This battle-heiti is also listed in Þul Valkyrja 2/8.

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 1848-87 = 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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
7. 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.
8. Finnur Jónsson. 1926-8. Ordbog til de af samfund til udg. af gml. nord. litteratur udgivne Rímur samt til de af Dr. O. Jiriczek udgivne Bósarímur. SUGNL 51. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
9. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
10. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
11. Falk, Hjalmar. 1889c. ‘Med hvilken ret kaldes skaldesproget kunstigt? 1. Homonymiens rolle. 2. De saakaldte halfkenningar. 3. Personnavnes indflydelse paa mands- og kvindekenningar. 4. Oversigt over det poetiske udtryks udvikling’. ANF 5, 245-77.
12. Internal references
13. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Heiti valkyrja 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. 970.
14. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Ǫrvar 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. 818.
15. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Á heiti 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. 840.
16. (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 23 April 2024)