Þul Viðar 2^III

Hasl, heggr, hallarr,         hagþorn, reynir,
ró, almr ok rót,         reyrr, askr, fura,
apaldr, ǫsp, laurus,         ulfviðr, lykkja,
eik, einir, píll,         elri, palmar.

Hasl, heggr, hallarr, hagþorn, reynir, ró, almr ok rót, reyrr, askr, fura, apaldr, ǫsp, laurus, ulfviðr, lykkja, eik, einir, píll, elri, palmar.

Hazel, bird-cherry tree, elder, hawthorn, rowan, ró, elm and root, reed, ash, fir, apple-tree, aspen, laurus, cranberry bush, lykkja, oak, juniper, willow, alder, palm-trees.

Mss: A(19v-20r), B(9r), 744ˣ(78v-79r) (SnE)

Readings: [2] reynir: ‘reýne[…]r’ B, ‘reýnerr’ 744ˣ    [3] ró: so B, ‘rø̨’ A    [4] fura: so B, ‘fyra’ A    [8] elri: elrir B

Editions: Skj AI, 682, Skj BI, 673, Skald I, 338; SnE 1848-87, II, 483, 566.

Notes: [All]: Seven of the heiti for ‘tree’ listed in this stanza are not otherwise found in poetry: hasl m. ‘hazel’ and hallarr m. ‘elder’ (l. 1), ró f. (l. 3), laurus (l. 5), ulfviðr m. ‘cranberry bush’, lykkja f. (l. 6) and píll m. ‘willow’ (l. 7). — [1] hallarr (m.) ‘elder’: A hap. leg. whose origin is unknown. The name may be related to ON hǫll, New Norw. hyll ‘elder’, Russian kalina ‘snowball tree’ (adopted in this edn; see ÍO: hallarr). According to Holthausen (1948, 104), the heiti is a loanword from OFr. hallier ‘bushes’. — [2] reynir (m.) ‘rowan’: The rowan was the one of the few trees, along with the dwarf birch (fjallhrapi, st. 1/6 above), that were found in Iceland, and therefore the word occurs frequently in Icelandic names of places which had rowan-groves at the time of the settlement (see CVC: reynir). Reynir is used in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 40) to explain the origin of the group of man-kennings with masculine terms for trees as base-words. According to that passage, this popular kenning pattern originated from a confusion of reynir ‘tester’ (an agent noun derived from the weak verb reyna ‘test, try’) and reynir ‘rowan’. See also SnE 1998, I, 25, Grett Ævkv II 2/7^V and 4/1-3^V (Gr 40, 42) and Notes there. The corresponding kennings for ‘woman’ are similarly explained as a result of confusion of selja ‘sallow’ with selja ‘one who hands over sth. to sby’ (see selja ‘sallow’, st. 1/2 above and Þul Kvenna II 2/1). — [3] ró (f.): So B (and the LaufE mss); the A variant ‘rø̨’ cannot be construed to make any sense in this context. As a heiti for ‘tree’ the word is not found elsewhere. It is possible that this heiti is not a term for a tree but rather denotes a pole (ró = rá f. ‘pole, sail-yard’). — [5] apaldr (m.) ‘apple-tree’: Found as a base-word in man-kennings in Sigrdr 5/2 and HHj 6/3. In skaldic poetry, the word occurs only once, where despite its m. gender it is used as a base-word in a kenning for ‘woman’ (Anon (LaufE) 1/4 línapaldr ‘flax-apple-tree’). It also occurs as the first element of the cpd apaldrgarðr ‘orchcard’ in Anon Pl 49/6^VII (see Note there). — [5] laurus: A Latin word for ‘laurel’, which in Old Norse occurs only in the present stanza. See also Introduction to Anon Þulur. — [6] ulfviðr (m.) ‘cranberry bush’: Lit. ‘wolf-wood’. Viburnum opulus, the European cranberry bush or Guelder rose. — [6] lykkja (f.): Not otherwise attested as a botanical term in Old Norse. It is possibly derived from lykkja ‘lock, loop’ in the sense ‘curved’. — [7] píll (m.) ‘willow’: ModNorw., ModDan. pil ‘crack willow’ (Salix fragilis). — [8] elri (n.) ‘alder’: So ms. A, where the word is morphologically a collective noun, while ms. B and the LaufE mss have elrir (m.). The latter is used as a base-word in man-kennings, where n. names for trees would be irregular. In kennings for ‘fire’, elris occurs as a determinant in the gen., which could be the gen. of both elri and elrir (e.g. Sturl Hákkv 7/7^II elris gram ‘dog of the alder [FIRE]’). — [8] palmar ‘palm-trees’: Palmi (m.) ‘palm-tree’ is a loan-word from OE palm ‘palm-tree’ (AEW: palmi).

References

1. Bibliography
2. 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.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
5. CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
6. ÍO = Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon. 1989. Íslensk orðsifjabók. Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans.
7. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
8. Holthausen, Ferdinand. 1948. Vergleichendes und etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altwestnordischen. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
9. Internal references
10. (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál’ 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=112> (accessed 26 April 2024)
11. Jonna Louis-Jensen and Tarrin Wills (eds) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Plácitusdrápa 49’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 211-12.
12. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Kvenna heiti ókend 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. 961.
13. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from Laufás Edda 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. 637.
14. Not published: do not cite ()
15. Jonathan Grove (ed.) 2022, ‘Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar 40 (Grettir Ásmundarson, Ævikviða II 2)’ 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. 731.
16. Not published: do not cite ()
17. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Sturla Þórðarson, Hákonarkviða 7’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 704-5.
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)