Anon (TGT) 5^III

Þorði Iðja orða.

{Orða Iðja} … þorði.

{Of the words of Iði <giant>} [GOLD] … dared.

Mss: A(4r), B(2v), W(102) (TGT)

Editions: Skj AI, 601, Skj BI, 601, Skald I, 293, NN §2810; SnE 1818, 313, SnE 1848, 184, SnE 1848-87, II, 108-9, 408, 510, III, 140, TGT 1884, 16, 71, 179, TGT 1927, 48, 94.

Context: Cited as an example of barbarismus where vowels of equal length are juxtaposed in adjoining syllables (TGT 1927, 48): Enn telr Dónátús þann lǫst með barbarismo, ef ii. raddarstafir jafnlangir standaz hit næsta í tveim samstǫfum ‘Donatus also ascribes to barbarism the fault where two vowels of equal length stand next to each other in two syllables’.

Notes: [All]: The figure illustrated here can be seen in the fragment as -i i- in þorði Iðja and/or -a o- in Iðja orða. It corresponds to the figure of hiatus which Donatus lists but does not explain. Hiatus is elaborated further in Hiberno-Latin commentaries, e.g. by Sedulius Scottus (CCCM 40B, 334): Hiatus sunt, sicuti diximus, cum similes uocales ac similiter longae collisam hiantemque structuram ‘Hiatus is, as we have said, when similar vowels of similar length make a clashed and gaping structure’. — [All]: The one-line fragment has aðalhending, but the double alliteration indicates that it must be an odd line. — [1] þorði ‘dared’: Þorði could be 3rd pers. sg. pret. indic. or 3rd pers. sg. or pl. pret. subj. of þora ‘dare’ or dat. of Þórðr, a pers. n. (if the stem vowel is long). Kock (NN § 2810) suggests that the whole line could simply refer to a name, ‘Gold-Þórðr’. — [1] orða Iðja ‘of the words of Iði <giant> [GOLD]’: The kenning for ‘gold’ refers to a myth according to which the giant Iði and his brothers (including Þjazi) received an inheritance by taking equal mouthfuls of gold (Skm 1998, I, 3; see Note to Anon Bjark 5/8).

References

1. Bibliography
2. TGT 1884 = Björn Magnússon Ólsen, ed. 1884. Den tredje og fjærde grammatiske afhandling i Snorres Edda tilligemed de grammatiske afhandlingers prolog og to andre tillæg. SUGNL 12. Copenhagen: Knudtzon.
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. SnE 1848 = Sveinbjörn Egilsson, ed. 1848. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar, eða Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál og Háttatal. Reykjavík: Prentsmiðja landsins.
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. CCCM = [Anonymous] Corpus Christianorum. 1971-. Continuatio mediaevalis. Turnhout: Brepols.
8. TGT 1927 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1927b. Óláfr Þórðarson: Málhljóða- og málskrúðsrit. Grammatisk-retorisk afhandling. Det kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. Historisk-filologiske meddelelser 13, 2. Copenhagen: Høst.
9. SnE 1818 = Rask, Rasmus Kristian, ed. 1818a. Snorra Edda ásamt Skáldu og þarmeð fylgjandi ritgjörðum. Stockholm: Elmen.
10. Internal references
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. Edith Marold (ed.) 2012, ‘Einarr skálaglamm Helgason, Vellekla 36’ 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. 328.