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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Anon (TGT) 12III

Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from the Third Grammatical Treatise 12’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 545.

Anonymous LausavísurStanzas from the Third Grammatical Treatise
111213

These five lines (Anon (TGT) 12), edited here by Kari Ellen Gade, are cited anonymously in mss A (main ms.) and W of TGT, but Jón Sigurðsson (SnE 1848-87, III, 365) assigned the stanza to Einarr Skúlason’s Øxarflokkr (ESk Øxfl) because it describes the gift of a precious axe, decorated with gold, received by the speaker. There is no evidence (pace Finnur Jónsson, TGT 1927, 97) that the stanza belonged to that poem (if such a poem ever existed) nor that it was composed by Einarr Skúlason. The stanza is incomplete and only the first line of the second helmingr is transmitted.

Hringtælir gaf hálu
hlýrsólar mér dýra;
oss kom Hrund til handa
hræpolls drifin golli,
sút þás Herjans hattar …

{Hringtælir} gaf mér {dýra hálu {hlýrsólar}}; {Hrund {hræpolls}}, drifin golli, kom oss til handa, þás {sút {hattar Herjans}} …

{The ring-trickster} [GENEROUS MAN] gave me {a precious troll-woman {of the prow-sun}} [SHIELD > AXE]; {the Hrund <valkyrie> {of the carrion-pool}} [BLOOD > AXE], decorated with gold, came into our [my] hands, when {the sorrow {of Herjann’s <= Óðinn’s> hat}} [HELMET > WEAPON] …

Mss: A(5r), W(104) (TGT)

Readings: [5] sút: so W, sótt A

Editions: Skj AI, 479, Skj BI, 451, Skald I, 222; SnE 1848-87, II, 122-3, 412, TGT 1884, 19, 80, 191, TGT 1927, 56, 97-8.

Context: The axe-kennings hála hlýrsólar ‘the troll-woman of the prow-sun’, Hrund hræpolls ‘the Hrund of the carrion-pool’ and sút hattar Herjans ‘sorrow of Herjann’s hat’ are given in TGT as examples of nykrat or finngálknat ‘monstrosity’ (cacemphaton), i.e. a change of metaphors resulting in inconsistent imagery.

Notes: [5] sút hattar Herjans ‘the sorrow of Herjann’s <= Óðinn’s> hat [HELMET > WEAPON]’: This kenning could just as well refer to a sword as to an axe (see Introduction to ESk Øxfl). With this kenning, the imagery of the stanza is changed, resulting in finngálknat or nykrat (see SnE 2007, 7). — [5] sút ‘the sorrow’: So W. The A variant, sótt ‘illness, distress’, could conceivably also be construed as a base-word in a kenning for ‘weapon’, although the word is not otherwise attested as a base-word in weapon-kennings (see LP: sóttMeissner 156). — [5] þás ‘when’: As Finnur Jónsson (TGT 1927, 98) points out, this could also be a rel. construction, f. acc. sg. ‘which’, referring back to hálu ‘troll-woman’ (l. 1).

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. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  5. Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. SnE 2007 = Snorri Sturluson. 2007. Edda: Háttatal. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
  9. Internal references
  10. (forthcoming), ‘ Óláfr hvítaskáld Þórðarson, The Third Grammatical Treatise’ in Tarrin Wills (ed.), The Third Grammatical Treatise. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=32> (accessed 29 March 2024)
  11. Kari Ellen Gade 2017, ‘(Biography of) Einarr Skúlason’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 140.
  12. Kari Ellen Gade 2017, ‘ Einarr Skúlason, Øxarflokkr’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 140. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1149> (accessed 29 March 2024)
  13. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from the Third Grammatical Treatise 12’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 545.
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