Eil Þdr 22^III

Vreiðr stóð Vrǫsku bróðir;
vá gagn faðir Magna;
skelfra Þórs né Þjalfa
þróttar steinn við ótta.

{Bróðir Vrǫsku} stóð vreiðr; {faðir Magna} vá gagn; {steinn þróttar} Þórs né Þjalfa skelfra við ótta.

{The brother of Rǫskva} [= Þjálfi] stood furious; {the father of Magni <god>} [= Þórr] won victory; {the stone of valour} [HEART] of neither Þórr nor Þjálfi trembles with terror.

Mss: R(21v), Tˣ(22r), W(47), U(27v) (SnE)

Readings: [2] vá: ‘ra‑’ W    [3] skelfra: skalf eigi U    [4] þróttar: þrótta W

Editions: Skj AI, 152, Skj BI, 144, Skald I, 79, NN §2446, SnE 1848-87, I, 254-5, II, 308, III, 15, SnE 1931, 95, SnE 1998, I, 15.

Context: The stanza is cited among stanzas illustrating kennings for Þórr in Skm (SnE).

Notes: [All]: The last two lines of this helmingr, which is transmitted in a different location in Skm than the other stanzas of Þdr, are similar to st. 11/7-8, which shows that this is a stef-stanza. — [1] Vrǫsku … vreiðr ‘of Rǫskva … furious’: All eds agree that, because alliteration falls on v- (vá) in l. 2, initial and archaic v- must be restored in the alliterating words Vrǫsku and vreiðr (l. 1) as well (cf. ANG §288 Anm. 1). The mss have (normalised) Rǫsku and reiðr. — [1] Vrǫsku ‘of Rǫskva’: According to Snorri, the two children Þjálfi and Rǫskva were given to Þórr as servants as compensation for an incident in which Þjálfi injured one of Þórr’s goats, causing it to limp (Gylf, SnE 2005, 37). In ARG II, 332, Rǫskva’s name is connected with Goth. wrisqan ‘bear fruit’ (cf. ON rǫskvast ‘grow, ripen’), and she could have been a goddess of fertility. The name can be reconstructed as Gmc *Wraskwō, an agent noun meaning ‘ripener, ripening one’. — [3] skelfra ‘trembles’: Lit. ‘does not tremble’ (3rd pers. sg. pres. indic. plus the negation ‑a). The negation ‑a reinforces the né linking Þórs né Þjalfa. Unlike in st. 11/7, where skalfa appears in the pret., the verb in this helmingr is in the pres. tense and this may have to do with the rhyme. In st. 11 the second helmingr has aðalhending in all lines; hence Þjalfa would rhyme with the pret. skalfa. The present helmingr has the usual alternation of skot- and aðalhending, and skelfra rhymes with Þjalfa. Kock (NN §2246) rejects skelfr because, in his opinion, a stef should not contain any changes, but this argument is not strong enough to overturn the evidence of most of the mss (R, Tˣ, W) in favour of the reading of U, skalf eigi ‘did not tremble’. — [4] steinn þróttar ‘the stone of valour [HEART]’: See Note to st. 11/8.

References

1. Bibliography
2. 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.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. ANG = Noreen, Adolf. 1923. Altnordische Grammatik I: Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer. 1st edn. 1884. 5th unrev. edn. 1970. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
6. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
7. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
8. SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
9. ARG = Vries, Jan de. 1956-7. Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte. 2 vols. 2nd edn. Berlin: de Gruyter.
10. Internal references
11. 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].
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 26 April 2024)
13. (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning’ 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=113> (accessed 26 April 2024)
14. Edith Marold with the assistance of Vivian Busch, Jana Krüger, Ann-Dörte Kyas and Katharina Seidel, translated from German by John Foulks 2017, ‘ Eilífr Goðrúnarson, Þórsdrápa’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 68. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1170> (accessed 26 April 2024)