Bragi Troll 1^III

Skald kalla mik,
skapsmið Viðurs,
Gauts gjafrǫtuð,
grepp óhneppan,
Yggs ǫlbera,
óðs skap-Móða,
hagsmið bragar.
Hvats skald nema þat?

Kalla mik skald, {{Viðurs skap}smið}, {{Gauts gjaf}rǫtuð}, óhneppan grepp, {{Yggs ǫl}bera}, {skap-Móða óðs}, {hagsmið bragar}. Hvats skald nema þat?

They call me poet, {smith {of Viðurr’s <= Óðinn’s> mind}} [(lit. ‘Viðurr’s mind-smith’) POETRY > POET], {getter {of Gautr’s <= Óðinn’s> gift}} [(lit. ‘Gautr’s gift-getter’) POETRY > POET], unscanty poet, {server {of Yggr’s <= Óðinn’s> ale}} [(lit. ‘Yggr’s ale-server’) POETRY > POET], {creating-Móði <god> of poetry} [POET], {skilled smith of poetry} [POET]. What’s a poet if not that?

Mss: R(36v), Tˣ(38r) (ll. 1-4, 7-8), U(36r), A(12v), C(6r) (SnE)

Readings: [2] skapsmið: so Tˣ, U, A, skapskíð R, skipsmið C    [3] Gauts: gauks U    [4] óhneppan: óhneppin C    [5] ǫlbera: ullbera C    [6] skap‑Móða: ‘sparmoða’ U, ‘skapmoðin’ A    [7] ‑smið: so all others, ‑skíð R

Editions: Skj AI, 5, Skj BI, 5, Skald I, 3, NN §1005; SnE 1848-87, I, 466-7, II, 339, 447, 590, III, 95, SnE 1931, 165, SnE 1998, I, 83-4.

Context: See Introduction above and Context to Anon (SnE) 9, to which this stanza is the riposte. In R and C (which have the troll-woman’s stanza in whole or in part), this one follows immediately upon hers, with the introductory prose, Hann svarar svá ‘He answers thus’. All mss that record this stanza preface it with some version of the prose account of Bragi’s encounter with the troll-woman, as he drove through a forest late one evening (for full prose text, see Context to Anon (SnE) 9).

Notes: [1] kalla mik skald ‘they call me poet’: The verbal and conceptual structure of Bragi’s stanza mirrors the troll-woman’s. As with l. 1 of her stanza, the interpretation of Bragi’s l. 1 could be kalla mik skald ‘they call me poet’, as here, with the following list of kennings as complement of the object, or skǫld kalla mik ‘poets call me …’. The latter sense requires emendation of all mss’ skald to skǫld, as in Skj B. — [2] skapsmið ‘mind-smith’: The base-word of an inverted tvíkent kenning for ‘poet’, with one of Óðinn’s names as determinant, the allusion being to the myth of how Óðinn obtained the mead of poetry from the giant Suttungr and then made it available in regurgitated form for the gods and talented human poets (cf. SnE 1998, I, 3-5). ‘Óðinn’s mind’ (or thought) is thus the mead of poetry itself. This myth is also the basis of the inverted kennings for ‘poet’, as Óðinn’s gift-getter and his ale-server, in ll. 3 and 5, Óðinn’s gift and his ale referring to the mead of poetry. Bragi’s references to the mead myth, with its creative alimentary associations, nicely counter the destructive alimentary references in the troll-woman’s kennings (Anon (SnE) 9/3, 7). Skap- (< skapa ‘create’) may possibly have the sense ‘creating, creative’ here (as it probably does in skap-Móði, l. 6) rather than ‘thought, mind’, in which case the kenning would not be inverted, and Viðurs would have the sense ‘belonging to, associated with Viðurr’, as god of poetry. Ms. R reads skapskíð ‘mind (or ‘creating’)-ski’ against the majority mss’ skapsmið. Skíð would then have to be a base-word of a man-kenning, but most uses of this word in skaldic verse refer to objects (e.g. ships, swords) rather than humans. Ms. C reads skipsmið ‘ship-smith’, a lectio facilior, possibly influenced by poetry-kennings of the type skip dverga ‘dwarfs’ ship’ (SnE 1998, I, 11). — [5] Yggs ‘of Yggr’s <= Óðinn’s>’: Ms. R has ‘vggs’ (Yggs all other mss), which is not a variant reading but another example (cf. Bragi Frag 5/4) of the scribe’s occasional alternation of <u/v> and <y> spellings (see SnE 1998, I, liv). — [5] ǫlbera ‘ale-server’: Kock (NN §1005) suggests emending ǫlbera to ǫlbrugga ‘ale-brewer’ to provide a rhyme, but there is no ms. support for this. — [6] skap-Móða óðs ‘creating-Móði <god> of poetry’: This is clearly a kenning for poetry (óðr covering the semantic range ‘mind, fury, frenzy, poetry, poem’) and thus suggestive of poetic inspiration. The element skap- probably reinforces this idea (see Note to l. 2 above), but Móði is a little unexpected as a mythological base-word, if the name denotes Þórr’s son of that name, as he is nowhere associated with poetry. However, the name’s etymological sense (cf. móðr ‘mood, anger, rage’) fits the context well. Móði is recorded as the base-word of man-kennings in skaldic verse and once (Þmáhl Máv 2/2^V (Eb 4)) as the base-word of a kenning for ‘poet’, Móði bragar ‘the Móði of poetry’. — [7] hagsmið bragar ‘skilled smith of poetry’: This is the reading of all mss except R, which has hagskíð, lit. ‘skilled ski’. The R scribe also wrote -skíð in l. 2, against all other mss’ ‑smið. The concept of the poet as a skilled craftsman was fundamental to skaldic self-image (cf. Clunies Ross 2005a, 84-91), just as that of the poet as recipient of Óðinn’s mead was, and, in this stanza, Bragi begins with the one and ends with the other, a powerful riposte to the troll-woman’s threat of death and cosmic destruction.

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. Clunies Ross, Margaret. 2005a. A History of Old Norse Poetry and Poetics. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
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. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from Snorra Edda 9’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 519.
11. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Bragi inn gamli Boddason, Fragments 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. 61.
12. Kate Heslop (ed.) 2022, ‘Eyrbyggja saga 4 (Þórarinn svarti máhlíðingr Þórólfsson, Máhlíðingavísur 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. 417.