Anon (SnE) 10^III

This helmingr (Anon (SnE) 10) is found in mss R (main ms.), Tˣ, A and C of Skm (SnE), and it is anonymous in all mss. Finnur Jónsson (Skj) groups it along with Anon (SnE) 3, 5-7 under the heading Om kampe og mod ‘About battles and bravery’, and dates it to the tenth century. The stanza cannot be dated on the basis of metrical and linguistic criteria, however.

Ǫrgildi* vask (Eldis)
áls Fjǫrgynjar (mála)
dyggr (sé heiðr ok h*eggi)
hrynbeðs (áar steðja).

Vask dyggr {ǫrgildi* {hrynbeðs {áls Fjǫrgynjar}}}; heiðr sé ok {h*eggi {mála {Eldis {steðja áar}}}}.

I was faithful {to the generous giver {of the resounding bed {of the eel of Fjǫrgyn [= Jǫrð (jǫrð ‘earth’)]}}} [SERPENT > GOLD > GENEROUS MAN]; may honour also come {to the cherry-tree {of the speeches {of the Eldir <mythical servant> {of the anvil of the river}}}} [STONE > GIANT > GOLD > MAN].

Mss: R(37r), Tˣ(38v), A(13r), C(6v) (SnE)

Readings: [1] Ǫrgildi*: Ǫrgildis R, A, C, ‘Aurgildi’ or ‘Aurgildis’ Tˣ;    vask (‘var ec’): var er A;    Eldis: eldi R, Tˣ, A, aldri C    [2] Fjǫr‑: ‘for’ Tˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 184, Skj BI, 174, Skald I, 93; SnE 1848-87, I, 476-7, II, 449, 593, III, 98, SnE 1931, 168, SnE 1998, I, 87.

Context: The helmingr is one of several stanzas illustrating kennings for ‘earth’.

Notes: [All]: There is textual corruption fairly consistently across the mss (see Readings above), and emendation cannot be avoided. — [1, 2, 4] ǫrgildi* hrynbeðs áls Fjǫrgynjar ‘to the generous giver of the resounding bed of the eel of Fjǫrgyn [= Jǫrð (jǫrð ‘earth’)] [SERPENT > GOLD > GENEROUS MAN]’: Most mss have (normalised) ǫrgildis gen. sg. ‘of the generous giver’ (the ending of the word is unclear in Tˣ), which cannot be construed to make sense syntactically. The emendation is in keeping with earlier eds. Fjǫrgyn is another name for the goddess Jǫrð, the mother of the god Þórr, and jǫrð means ‘earth’ (see e.g. Vsp 56/10). — [1, 2, 3, 4] h*eggi mála Eldis steðja áar ‘to the cherry-tree of the speeches of the Eldir <mythical servant> of the anvil of the river [STONE > GIANT > GOLD > MAN]’: The emendation of the mss’ eldi m. dat. sg. ‘for the fire’ or Eldi m. acc. or dat. sg. of Eldir is in keeping with earlier eds. Mála Eldis steðja áar ‘of the speeches of the Eldir of the anvil of the river’ is clearly a kenning for ‘gold’ (for this myth, see Note to Anon Bjark 5/8). Eldir was one of the servants of the sea-giant Ægir (see Lok 1-5 and prose, NK 96-7). The base-word of this man-kenning is more problematic. All mss have hreggi n. dat. sg. ‘storm’, which is retained by Faulkes (SnE 1998). Hregg ‘storm’ is unprecedented as a base-word in a man-kenning, however, not only because ‘storm of gold’ makes little sense (Faulkes, SnE 1998, II, 317 provides the translation ‘destroyer, enemy of gold’, i.e. ‘generous man’), but also because the noun is n. and not m. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B, followed by Kock in Skald) tentatively emends to hnøggvi (m. dat. sg. of hnøggvir), which Finnur (LP: hnøggvir) translates as som støder, rykker bort, uddeler ‘one who shoves, snatches away, distributes’. Hnøggvir is a hap. leg., however, and also a poor candidate for a base-word in a kenning for ‘generous man’, because other nouns derived from the verb hnøggva ‘shove, push separate sby from sth., stumble’, such as hnøggvi ‘parsimony’ and hnøggvingr ‘one who is parsimonious’, have the opposite meaning to ‘generous’. The present emendation heggi, m. dat. sg. of heggr ‘bird-cherry tree’ (see Þul Viðar 2/1), is less intrusive, and heggr is attested as a base-word in a kenning for ‘warrior’ in Gsind Hákdr 3/2^I.

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. 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.
6. NK = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. I: Text. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
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. Internal references
10. Edith Marold 2017, ‘Snorra Edda (Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál)’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].
11. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Poems, Bjarkamál in fornu 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. 502.
12. (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 23 April 2024)
13. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Viðar 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. 882.
14. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from Snorra Edda 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. 514.
15. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from Snorra Edda 10’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 521.
16. Not published: do not cite ()
17. Russell Poole (ed.) 2012, ‘Guthormr sindri, Hákonardrápa 3’ 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. 161.
18. Not published: do not cite ()