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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Þul Fiska 3III

Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Fiska 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. 855.

Anonymous ÞulurFiska heiti
234

Fjǫrsungr, þrǫmmungr         ok fengrani,
hamarr, sandhverfa         ok horngœla,
marknútr, glǫmmungr         ok marþvara,
sílungr, skelfiskr,         sverðfiskr ok lýr.

Fjǫrsungr, þrǫmmungr ok fengrani, hamarr, sandhverfa ok horngœla, marknútr, glǫmmungr ok marþvara, sílungr, skelfiskr, sverðfiskr ok lýr.

Weever, mailed sculpin and wels, porbeagle shark, turbot and garfish, sea scorpion, noise-maker and prawn, trout, shellfish, swordfish and pollack.

Mss: A(19v), B(9r), 744ˣ(74v-75r), Tˣ(45v) (SnE)

Readings: [2] ok: om. Tˣ    [4] ok horngœla: ‘[…]or[…]’ B, ‘ok hornge᷎la’ 744ˣ    [5] ‑knútr: ‘‑knvt[…]’ B, ‘‑knvtr’ 744ˣ;    glǫmmungr: ‘[…]nngr’ B, ‘..o᷎mmunngr’ 744ˣ    [6] ok: om. Tˣ;    marþvara: ‘marþ[…]ra’ B, ‘marþuara’ 744ˣ    [7] skelfiskr: skeljungr Tˣ    [8] lýr: lýrr B

Editions: Skj AI, 671, Skj BI, 667, Skald I, 332; SnE 1848-87, I, 579, II, 480, 564, 623, SnE 1931, 207, SnE 1998, I, 126.

Notes: [All]: The order of heiti in ll. 2-8 in mss R(43v) and C(12v) differs from that of A, B and :

Fjǫrsungr, þrǫmmungr       ok marþvara,
sílungr, skelfingr,       sverðfiskr ok lýr,
hamarr, sandhverfa       ok horngœla,
marknútr, glǫmmungr       ok fengrani.

Readings: [1] þrǫmmungr: ‘þrummungr’ C   [2] mar-: jarn- C   [4] lýr: lýrr C   [5] hamarr: ‘humar’ C   [7] glǫmmungr: so C, ‘glavmmvgr’ R. It cannot be ascertained whether the form this stanza has in A (main ms.), B and is original, because it may reflect a later attempt to rearrange the incorrect verse in order to restore the alliteration missing in ll. 1-2, 7-8 of mss R and C. However, the defective alliteration of the R, C redaction, as well as the fact that ms. follows the A, B redaction here, makes it likely that the order of lines as represented by A, B and is correct. — [All]: Only one heiti (namely, lýr m. ‘pollack’ l. 8) out of the thirteen listed here occurs in poetry. — [1] fjǫrsungr (m.) ‘weever’: Trachinus draco ‘greater weever’; ModIcel. fjörsungur, ModNorw. fjesing (Nordgaard 1912, 60). As a term for a species of fish, the word is not found in other sources (see also fjǫrsungr in Þul Hauks 2/6 and Note there). — [1] þrǫmmungr (m.) ‘mailed sculpin’: Triglops murrayi, ModIcel. þrömmungur. In Old Norse, the heiti occurs only in the þulur (see also Þul Hauks 2/6). According to Nordgaard (1912, 60), þrǫmmungr may be a kind of sprætfisk ‘floundering fish’, while de Vries (AEW: þrǫmmun, þrǫmmungr) interprets this fish-heiti as ‘one jumping out of the water’. — [2] fengrani (m.) ‘wels’: So Modern Icelandic, where this is the term for Silurus glanis ‘wels catfish’. The word is otherwise not attested in Old Norse, and it cannot be established with certainty what species of fish the cpd referred to. The name is derived from fen n. ‘fen, pool’ and grǫn f. ‘moustache’ (lit. ‘fen-moustache’). — [3] hamarr (m.) ‘porbeagle shark’: A male porbeagle shark (see hámerr ‘porbeagle shark’, st. 2/7 above). — [3] sandhverfa (f.) ‘turbot’: Lit. ‘sand-turner’ (a flounder has both eyes on the same side of the head). Scophthalmus maximus, a large flounder. — [4] horngœla (f.) ‘garfish’: Belone belone, a saltwater needlefish. See also geirsíl ‘garfish’ (st. 4/6 below). — [5] marknútr (m.) ‘sea scorpion’: Lit. ‘sea-knot’. I. e. Cottus scorpius, in ModIcel. marhnútur (Nordgaard 1912, 61). — [5] glǫmmungr (m.) ‘noise-maker’: Most likely derived from glam(m) n. ‘noise’. Faulkes (SnE 1998, II, 291) suggests that it might be a term for ‘gurnard’. The word is not used in skaldic poetry but it occurs several times in the rímur (Finnur Jónsson 1926-8: glǫmmungr). — [6] marþvara (f.) ‘prawn’: Lit. ‘sea-borer’ (from marr m. ‘sea’ and þvari m. ‘gimlet, drill’); not attested elsewhere. This name may denote the same species as ModIcel. marþvari ‘shrimp, prawn’, Sclerocrangon boreas (so ÍO: marþvara, marþvari; for other explanations, see Nordgaard 1912, 61). — [7] sílungr (m.) ‘trout’: A young freshwater trout (Salmo trutta). — [8] lýr (m.) ‘pollack’: Pollachius pollachius, a saltwater fish resembling the coalfish (seiðr, st. 2/1 above).

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. 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.
  6. ÍO = Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon. 1989. Íslensk orðsifjabók. Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans.
  7. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
  8. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
  9. Nordgaard, O. 1912. ‘Fiskenavnene i Snorres Edda’. MM, 54-66.
  10. Internal references
  11. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Hauks 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. 943.
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