Eil Þdr 8^III

Harðvaxnar leit herðar
hallands of sik falla
(gatat maðr) njótr (in neytri)
njarð- (rôð fyr sér) -gjarðar.
Þverrir lét, nema þyrri
Þorns barna sér, Mǫrnar
snerriblóð, til svíra
salþaks megin vaxa.

{Njótr njarðgjarðar} leit {harðvaxnar herðar {hallands}} falla of sik; maðr gatat in neytri rôð fyr sér. {Þverrir {barna Þorns}} lét megin vaxa sér til svíra {salþaks}, nema {snerriblóð Mǫrnar} þyrri.

{The user of the strength-belt} [= Þórr] saw {the hard-grown shoulders {of the sloping-land}} [MOUNTAIN > ROCKS] fall around him; the man could not find a useful solution for himself. {The diminisher {of the children of Þorn <giant>}} [GIANTS > = Þórr] said that his strength would grow to the neck {of the roof of the earth} [SKY] unless {the rushing blood of Mǫrn <female mythical being>} [RIVER] receded.

Mss: R(24v), Tˣ(25v), W(53) (SnE)

Readings: [1] leit: sér R, lét Tˣ, W;    herðar: herðir all    [2] sik: corrected from ‘sæ’ R    [3] gatat: so Tˣ, W, ‘gatar’ R;    neytri: ‘næyti’ W    [5] Þverrir: ‘þueriur’ Tˣ;    lét: so Tˣ, W, lætr R    [6] Þorns: ‘þoms’ R, Tˣ, Þórs W    [7] snerri‑: ‘snæri’ W

Editions: Skj AI, 149, Skj BI, 141, Skald I, 77, NN §§449, 450; SnE 1848-87, I, 294-5, III, 29-30, SnE 1931, 108, SnE 1998, I, 27.

Context: See Context to st. 1.

Notes: [1-2] harðvaxnar herðar hallands ‘the hard-grown shoulders of the sloping-land [MOUNTAIN > ROCKS]’: This rock-kenning follows the pattern ‘bones of the earth’, i.e. the ‘shoulders’ are shoulder bones. There are two possible interpretations of halland: (a) as a cpd consisting of the adj. hallr ‘sloping’ and land ‘land’ or (b) as a cpd consisting of hallr ‘stone’ and land ‘land’. Both interpretations yield a kenning for ‘mountain’. Since halland is the determinant in a kenning for ‘stone, rocks’, it is preferable to choose option (a) i.e. halland ‘sloping-land’. The interpretation as ‘stone-land’ would duplicate the referent ‘stone’ in the kenning (‘the hard shoulders of the stone-land [MOUNTAIN > ROCKS]’) which ought to be avoided according to the rules of kenning formation (cf. hallvǫllr st. 15/2 and Note there). — [1] leit ‘saw’: The mss give the two variants sér ‘saw’ and lét ‘let’. This edn follows Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) who emends ‘let’ (Tˣ, W) to leit ‘he saw’. Although lét ‘let’ could be a possible choice (NN §449 and Reichardt 1948, 352), two arguments speak against this. First of all, lét would mean either that Þórr accepted the stones falling around him or that he caused them to fall. Neither interpretation is convincing because the next clause states that he did not know what to do in this situation. Secondly, the next helmingr uses the exact same verb (lét). Sér ‘he sees’ (R) (so Sveinbjörn Egilsson 1851, 8; Finnur Jónsson 1900b, 384) is also problematic because all other verbs in the stanza are in the pret. tense. The emendation leit results in a verb for ‘see, realise’ in the pret. form. — [1] herðar ‘the shoulders’: The emendation (so Finnur Jónsson 1900b, 384; Skj B; NN §449; Reichardt 1948, 352) is necessary because herðr ‘shoulder’, a f. jō-stem, has the ending ‑ar in acc. pl. Faulkes (SnE 1998, II, 307) tries to avoid emendation by combining herðir ‘the hardener, promoter’ with hallands, which he interprets as ‘whetstone-land’ (ibid., 300), a kenning for ‘sword’. Herðir hallands ‘the sword-impeller’ would then be a warrior-kenning for Þórr. However, hallr is not attested in the meaning ‘whetstone’, which is always called hein. As a consequence, Faulkes (ibid., 302) is forced to interpret harðvaxnar as a noun, ‘mightily grown, swollen’, designating the rivers. — [3, 4] gatat … rôð ‘could not find … a course of action’: I.e. he could not avoid the falling rocks. For rôð ‘solution’, see LP: ráð 4. — [3] maðr ‘the man’: Because Þdr characteristically portrays Þórr and his companion as warriors and refers to them with man-kennings (see Introduction above), maðr here probably means Þórr. This makes conjectures that depart from the mss unnecessary, such as mar ‘sea’ (Sveinbjörn Egilsson 1851, 8; Finnur Jónsson 1900b, 384-5; Skj B) and meir ‘more’ (NN §449). — [3, 4] njótr njarðgjarðar ‘the user of the strength-belt [= Þórr]’: This Þórr-kenning must be understood in relation to the prose of Skm (SnE 1998, I, 24-5), according to which Loki was prevailed upon to make Þórr enter the land of giants without his hammer or belt. Gríðr, a giantess and mother of Óðinn’s son Víðarr, lends him a belt of strength (megingjǫrð) along with iron gloves and a staff. The tmesis njarð-gjarðar is unavoidable here. Mohr (1940, 220-1) suggested the cpd njarðrôð, which he took to mean ‘useful assistance’: gatat njarðrôð gjarðar ‘he had no useful assistance from the belt’. This leaves njótr without a determinant, however. The first element of the cpd, njarð-, is not attested as a simplex, but the cpd njarðláss ‘strong, unbreakable lock’ (LP) confirms that it means ‘power, strength’. Like the name of the god Njǫrðr, njarð- ‘strength’ may derive from Gmc *nerþ- (cf. also the name of the goddess Nerthus; see Tacitus, Germania 1967, 441, 450-1), which is related to OIr. nert- ‘strength’ (AEW: Njǫrðr). — [5-8]: There are two ways to interpret these lines. (a) Þverrir barna Þorns lét megin vaxa sér til svíra salþaks, nema snerriblóð Mǫrnar þyrri ‘The diminisher of the children of Þorn <giant> [GIANTS > = Þórr] said that his strength would grow to the neck of the roof of the earth [SKY] unless the rushing blood of Mǫrn <female mythical being> [RIVER] receded’. The advantages of this interpretation, which is adopted in the present edn, are that it is largely faithful to the word order of the stanza and contains no metrical violations. The river-kenning snerriblóð Mǫrnar, however, still presents a problem (see Note below). (b) Þverrir barna Mǫrnar lét megin vaxa sér til salþaks, nema snerriblóð Þorns svíra þyrri ‘the diminisher of the children of Mǫrn <female mythical being> [GIANTS > = Þórr] said that his strength would grow to the roof of the earth [SKY] unless the rushing blood of the neck of Þorn <giant> [RIVER] receded’ (so Finnur Jónsson 1900b, 385; Skj B). The indubitable advantage of the latter interpretation is that the river-kenning snerriblóð Þorns matches the widespread kenning pattern ‘blood of the giant’. However, there are two reasons to discard it. First of all, svíra ‘of the neck’ is not a necessary part of the river-kenning and placing it in that kenning forces a three-part l. 7, isolating the prep. til. Further, the way l. 6 is split up violates the metre, which requires the sentence boundary to fall before Mǫrnar. — [5-8]: The content of this helmingr is corroborated by an eddic stanza which Snorri (SnE 1998, I, 25) quotes in his narrative of the myth. According to that stanza, Þórr addresses the river directly: Vaxattu nú, Vimur … veiztu ef þú vex at þá vex mér ásmegin jafnhátt upp sem himinn ‘Do not grow now, Vimur … you know that if you grow, then the power of an Áss will rise up in me just as high as the sky’. The river-name Vimur is confirmed by a Þórr-kenning in ÚlfrU Húsdr 6/5-6, Víðgymnir vaðs Vimrar ‘the Víðgymnir <giant> of the ford of Vimur <river>’ (cf. additional examples in LP: Vimur.) — [6] Þorns ‘of Þorn <giant>’: The variant reading ‘þors’ (W) could be construed as the gen. Þórs ‘of Þórr’, but it does not make sense here. The reading ‘þōs’ (R, Tˣ) could, along with the reading ‘þoms’ in R in st. 2/4, be interpreted as the gen. Þoms of an unattested giant-name Þomr (Genzmer 1934, 70). Emendation to Þorns is preferable, however, because that giant-name is attested in sts 2/4 (ms. Tˣ) and 14/2 (see Note to st. 2/4). — [6] Mǫrnar ‘of Mǫrn <female mythical being>’: It is not necessary to emend the mss’ ‘mꜹrnar’ (R), ‘maurnar’ (Tˣ, W) to Marnar (so Skj B), since a and ǫ form aðalhending in the C10th. A gen. *Marnar is not attested (cf. Heusler 1903, 36, who rejects emending Mǫrnar to Marnar ). Mǫrn as a river-name (cf. Þul Á 3/3; Hfr Lv 3/3^V; Bjhít Lv 19/6^V; Ólsv Hákdr 1/1) is perhaps derived either from the name of the Marne, a tributary of the Seine in France, or from rivers of this name in Telemark and Agder in Norway (Clunies Ross 1978b, 302 n. 41). It is also rather common as the name of a giantess (see Þjóð Haustl 6/4 and 12/8, LP: 2. mǫrn and Note to ll. 6-7 above). — [6-7] snerriblóð Mǫrnar ‘the rushing blood of Mǫrn <female mythical being> [RIVER]’: It is clear from the context of the stanza that snerriblóð Mǫrnar must refer to the river Þórr wades across. Because Mǫrn is attested both as a river-name and as the name of a giantess (see Note to l. 6), Clunies Ross (1978b, 302 n. 41; 1981, 373) arrives at a compromise that the present edn adopts as well. She explains the duality river/giantess by assuming that Þdr maintains ‘a delicate modulation between the attribution of anthropomorphic qualities to the river itself and clear statements that one or more giantesses had been responsible for causing the stream to become turbulent’ (Clunies Ross 1981, 373). She further attributes this to an early Scandinavian thought pattern ‘which conceived rivers as essentially female features of the landscape and thus described them in terms of human female effluvia’ (ibid.). Hence, Mǫrn could be a river as well as the blood of a mythical being. Aside from the possible explanation as menstrual blood (Kiil 1956, 118; see also st. 5/4 with an interpretation different from Kiil’s), blood can also flow within the body, however, as the kenning type ‘blood of the earth [RIVER]’ (Meissner 99-100) shows. The duality between river and the blood of a mythical being is illustrated by a stanza by Þórðr Særeksson (ÞSjár Frag 4/2, 3, 4), which alludes to stormy seas as follows: en eymylvir spýtir blóði systra ‘and the island-grinder [MAELSTROM] spits out the sisters’ blood [WATER]’. These sisters are the waves, daughters of the sea-giant Ægir, and their blood is ‘water’. Ægir’s daughters exhibit precisely the same duality between a natural phenomenon (waves) and a mythical being (see Introduction above). All Indo-European peoples had river deities, i.e. rivers they regarded as deities and worshipped as such (Maringer 1974). Ganges (Indian), Achelous (Greek), Tiberius (Roman) and Rhenos (Celtic) were among the names associated with these dual entities. The river Marne is another example; its name derives from Matrona (Pokorny 1959, 701). — [7-8] til svíra salþaks ‘to the neck of the roof of the earth [SKY]’: Salþaks lit. ‘of the hall-roof’. Here the world is conceived as a building as in Vsp 4/5-8 (NK 1): sól scein sunnan | á salar steina, | þá var grund gróin | grœnom lauki ‘the sun shone from the south on the stones of the hall (i.e. the earth), then the ground was grown with green leek’ (cf. Kiil 1956, 118; Davidson 1983, 598; see also Note to Rv Lv 34/1). On the sky conceptualised as a roof, cf. Meissner 104. Svíra cannot be connected with megin ‘strength’ (l. 8) (Sveinbjörn Egilsson 1851, 8) or Þorns (l. 6) (Finnur Jónsson 1900b, 384; Skj B), because either construction would leave the dangling prep. til ‘to’ and divide l. 7 into three parts (see NN §450; Reichardt 1948, 353). Svíra is difficult to interpret; in the phrase til svíra salþaks ‘to the neck of the roof of the earth’, it can perhaps be explained in light of the fact that buildings could be thought of as living beings; cf. house-kennings whose base-words are names for animals (Meissner 430). It may also have to do with the idea of the cosmos as a living being; cf. the explanation in the Prologue to SnE (SnE 2005, 1-2) of how people came to believe in an earth goddess.

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. 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.
7. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
8. 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.
9. Clunies Ross, Margaret. 1978b. ‘Style and Authorial Presence in Skaldic Mythological Poetry’. SBVS 20, 276-304.
10. Clunies Ross, Margaret. 1981. ‘An Interpretation of the Myth of Þórr’s Encounter with Geirrøðr and his Daughters’. In Dronke et al. 1981, 370-91.
11. NK = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. I: Text. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
12. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
13. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
14. Davidson, Daphne L. 1983. ‘Earl Hákon and his Poets’. D. Phil. thesis. Oxford.
15. SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
16. Pokorny, Julius. 1959. Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. Bern: Francke.
17. Heusler, Andreas. 1903. ‘Die Geschichte vom Völsi, eine altnordische Bekehrungsanekdote’. Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde 13, 24-39. Rpt. in Heusler 1969, 372-87.
18. Germania 1967 = Much, Rudolf, ed. 1967. Die Germania des Tacitus. 3rd edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
19. Finnur Jónsson. 1900b. ‘Þórsdrápa Eilífs Goðrúnarsonar’. Oversigt over det Kgl. Danske videnskabernes selskabs forhandlinger 1900, 369-410.
20. Kiil, Vilhelm. 1956. ‘Eilífr Goðrúnarson’s Þórsdrápa’. ANF 71, 89-167.
21. Reichardt, Konstantin. 1948. ‘Die Thórsdrápa des Eilífr Goðrúnarson: Textinterpretation’. PMLA 63, 329-91.
22. Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 1851. Tvö brot af Haustlaung og Þórsdrápa. Reykjavík: Prentað á kostnað skólasjóðsins.
23. Genzmer, Felix. 1934. ‘Die ersten Gesätze der Thorsdrapa’. In [n. a.]. 1934. Studia Germanica tillägnade Ernst Albin Kock den 6 december 1934. Lund: Gleerup; Copenhagen: Levin & Munksgaard, 1934, 59-73.
24. Maringer, Johannes. 1974. ‘Flußopfer und Flußverehrung in vorgeschichtlicher Zeit’. Germania 52, 309-18.
25. Mohr, Wolfgang. 1940. ‘Thor im Fluss. Zur Form der altnordischen mythologischen Überlieferung’. BGDSL 65, 209-29.
26. Internal references
27. 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].
28. (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 24 April 2024)
29. 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 24 April 2024)
30. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Á 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. 843.
31. Alison Finlay (ed.) 2022, ‘Bjarnar saga Hítdœlakappa 29 (Bjǫrn Hítdœlakappi Arngeirsson, Lausavísur 19)’ 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. 101.
32. Not published: do not cite ()
33. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2022, ‘Hallfreðar saga 4 (Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld Óttarsson, 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. 877.
34. Elena Gurevich 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Þórs heiti’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 758. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3186> (accessed 24 April 2024)
35. R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2017, ‘Óláfr svartaskáld Leggsson, Hákonardrápa 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. 312.
36. Judith Jesch (ed.) 2017, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl Kali Kolsson, Lausavísur 34’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 343.
37. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Þórðr Særeksson (Sjáreksson), Fragments 4’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 480.
38. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Þjóðólfr ór Hvini, Haustlǫng 6’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 440.
39. Edith Marold (ed.) 2017, ‘Úlfr Uggason, Húsdrápa 6’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 415.