Guðbr Frag 2^III

Upp setr mǫkk inn mikla
móðfjalls verǫld alla.

Inn mikla mǫkk setr upp {alla verǫld {móðfjalls}}.

The great cloud rises up {over the entire world {of the mind-mountain}} [HEART > BREAST].

Mss: A(5r), W(104) (TGT); A(1r) (GrammSkáld, l. 1)

Readings: [1] setr: dregr A(1r)

Editions: Skj AII, 130, Skj BII, 137, Skald II, 73, NN §1373; SnE 1848-87, II, 126-7, 397, 413, TGT 1884, 20, 82, 159, 193-4, TGT 1927, 57, 98.

Context: In TGT the couplet illustrates the rhetorical figure macrologia (TGT 1927, 57): Þessi fígúra verðr ok, ef maðr talar þǫrfum fleira um hinn sama hlut ‘This rhetorical figure also occurs if a man speaks more than necessary about the same thing’. In the fragment preserved in A(1r) the context appears to be the same, but the wording of the prose is somewhat different (SnE 1848-87, II, 397): … garð ær þat kallað æf længi ær talat vm hit sama æfni ‘… it is called ‘yard’ [?] if the same topic is spoken about for a long time’.

Notes: [All]: The couplet is fragmentary, and the present attempt (following TGT 1884, 193-4 and NN §1373) to make syntactic and semantic sense of the two lines remains tentative. According to this interpretation, the poet is lamenting the fact that his soul is being enveloped in a cloud of sorrow. It is not entirely clear exactly how this couplet exemplifies macrologia, however, unless it refers to the overladen phrase used by the poet with expressions for both ‘heart’ and ‘breast’ (see Note to l. 2 below). — [All]: For another fragment illustrating macrologia in TGT, see Arn Hryn 2^II and Context there. — [1] setr upp ‘rises up’: Used impersonally with inn mikla mǫkk ‘the great cloud’ as the acc. object. The A variant dregr upp ‘rises up’ is also possible but could have been caused by association with Þjsk Jarl l. 1^I Þoku dregr upp ‘Fog rises up’. — [1] inn mikla mǫkk ‘the great cloud’: Recalls Þjsk Jarl l. 3^I (see TGT 1884, 194). — [2] móðfjalls ‘of the mind-mountain [HEART]’: Most earlier eds agree that this is a kenning for ‘heart’. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) treats the gen. as syntactically independent of the rest of the couplet: … hjærtets (usikker opfattelse) ‘… of the heart (uncertain interpretation)’ (so also TGT 1927). In TGT 1884, 194 and NN §1373, móðfjalls is taken as a determinant to alla verǫld ‘the entire world’, yielding a kenning for ‘breast’. Björn Magnússon Ólsen (loc. cit.) adduces the kenning hneggverǫld ‘heart-world [BREAST]’ (Anon (SnE) 18/3) in support of that interpretation, and it has been adopted here. Because móðfjall, if given in the acc., in itself would have been sufficient to express the poet’s state of mind (‘the great cloud rises up over my heart’), it is possible that the addition of alla verǫld, which is not semantically necessary, constituted macrologia (see Note to [All] above). — [2] alla verǫld ‘over the entire world’: An acc. of place (see NS §96b).

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. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
4. 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.
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. NS = Nygaard, Marius. 1906. Norrøn syntax. Kristiania (Oslo): Aschehoug. Rpt. 1966.
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. 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 19 April 2024)
11. Not published: do not cite ()
12. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from Snorra Edda 18’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 530.
13. Kate Heslop 2012, ‘ Þorleifr jarlsskáld Rauðfeldarson, Jarlsníð’ 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. 372. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1448> (accessed 19 April 2024)
14. Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson, Hrynhenda, Magnússdrápa 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 184-5.