Anon (SnE) 18^III

This stanza (Anon (SnE) 18) is transmitted only in ms. U of Skm (SnE). It is written on fol. 44r at the very end of Skm, following Þul Woman 1-2 without intervening prose.

Stendr, þats stórum grandar,
sterkviðri mér Herkju
í hneggverǫld; hyggju
hefk stríð borit víða.
Þar kømr enn, ef unna
ítr vildi Bil skaldi,
at blíðr of grœr Gríðar
glaumvindr í sal þindar.

{Sterkviðri Herkju}, þats grandar stórum, stendr í {hneggverǫld} mér; hefk borit stríð hyggju víða. Þar kømr enn, ef ítr Bil vildi unna skaldi, at {blíðr glaumvindr Gríðar} of grœr í {sal þindar}.

{A strong storm of Herkja <troll-woman>} [THOUGHT], which hurts greatly, resides in {my heart-world} [BREAST]; I have carried my grief of mind far and wide. Yet it will happen, if the precious Bil <goddess> would love the skald, that {a sweet pleasure-wind of Gríðr <giantess>} [THOUGHT] will grow in {my hall of the diaphragm} [BREAST].

Mss: U(44r) (SnE)

Readings: [7] of grœr: grœr U

Editions: Skj AI, 601, Skj BI, 601, Skald I, 293, NN §§1209, 1910, 2127, 2991B; SnE 1848-87, II, 363, III, 164-5.

Notes: [2] sterkviðri Herkju ‘a strong storm of Herkja <troll-woman> [THOUGHT]’: For kennings of this type, see Note to st. 1/1-2, 3 above. For Herkja (lit. ‘tumultuous one’), see Note to Þul Trollkvenna 3/2 (see also the kenning in ll. 7-8 below).  — [3] hnegg- ‘heart-’: This is a rare poetic word for ‘heart’ (see Note to Þul Hugar ok hjarta l. 1). — [5-8]: There are several problems in this helmingr, and different emendations have been suggested. — [6] Bil vildi ‘the Bil <goddess> would’: Bil is a goddess (see Þul Kvenna II 3/6 and Note to Þul Ásynja 1/8), and as such the name can function as a base-word in kennings for ‘woman’. There is no determinant here, however, and, furthermore, the line contains skothending (-ild- : ‑ald-) rather than aðalhending. Following Konráð Gíslason (Nj 1875-89, II, 75-6), Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) accordingly emends the verb vildi (3rd pers. sg. pret. subj.) ‘would’ to falda ‘of head-dresses’, which forces another emendation in l. 5 (unna inf. ‘love’ > ynni 3rd pers. sg. pret. subj. ‘would love’) to provide a finite verb for the clause. As Kock (NN §1209) points out, half-kennings for ‘woman’ that involve the names of goddesses are not unattested, and Bil has been treated as a half-kenning in the present edn as well (so also in SnE 1848-87). Kock (NN §§1910, 2991B) emends vildi to valdi ‘would choose to’ to achieve aðalhending. While it is certainly not inconceivable that vildi in U represents a lectio facilior, the ms. reading has been retained here. — [7]: As it stands in the ms., this line contains five rather than six metrical positions, and a syllable is missing after the adj. blíðr ‘sweet’. The missing syllable must have been unstressed and must have belonged syntactically either to that adj. or to the following verb grœr ‘will grow’ (see Gade 1995a, 47-9). There are three possible emendations that would obviate the metrical deficiency. First of all, the adj. blíðr (m. nom. sg.), which qualifies glaumvindr ‘pleasure-wind’ (l. 8), could have been desyllabified (blíður), but that would presuppose that the stanza is late (C14th), and there are no other metrical or linguistic irregularities that would suggest such a late date. Second, emendation of blíðr to blíðum (m. dat. sg.) qualifying sal (m. dat. sg.) ‘hall’ would also furnish the missing syllable. Third (and adopted here), the expletive particle of could have dropped out in the ms. transmission. That emendation was first proposed by Konráð Gíslason (Nj 1875-89, II, 75-6) and adopted in Skj B. Kock (Skald; NN §2127) provides the pron. mér ‘for me’, but that emendation is unmetrical. — [7-8] glaumvindr Gríðar ‘pleasure-wind of Gríðr <giantess> [THOUGHT]’: See Note to l. 1 above. — [8] þindar ‘of the diaphragm’: Attested only here in Old Norse, but cf. ModIcel. þind, ModNorw. tinder ‘diaphragm’.

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. Nj 1875-89 = Konráð Gíslason and Eiríkur Jónsson. 1875-89. Njála: Udgivet efter gamle håndskrifter. Íslendingasögur udgivne efter gamle haandskrifter af Det Kongelige Nordiske Oldskrift-selskab 4. Copenhagen: Thiele.
5. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
7. Gade, Kari Ellen. 1995a. The Structure of Old Norse dróttkvætt Poetry. Islandica 49. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
8. Internal references
9. 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].
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 19 April 2024)
11. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Trollkvenna 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. 727.
12. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Ásynja 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. 763.
13. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Kvenna heiti ókend 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. 963.
14. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from Snorra Edda 18’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 530.
15. Elena Gurevich 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Hugar heiti ok hjarta’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 964. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3243> (accessed 19 April 2024)
16. R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2022, ‘Njáls saga 18 (Skarpheðinn Njálsson, Lausavísur 3)’ 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. 1243.