HSt Frag 2^III

Holmleggjar viðr hilmir
hring-Skǫglar mik þǫglan.

{Hilmir {holmleggjar}} {hring-Skǫglar} viðr mik þǫglan.

{The ruler {of the island-bone}} [ROCK > DWARF = Litr (litr ‘colour’)] {of the ring-Skǫgul <valkyrie>} [WOMAN] makes me silent.

Mss: A(5v), W(105) (TGT)

Readings: [1] viðr: so W, vinnr A

Editions: Skj AI, 552, Skj BI, 534, Skald I, 260; SnE 1848-87, II, 132-3, 414, III, 145, TGT 1884, 21, 85, 198-9, TGT 1927, 60, 100.

Context: This couplet is cited in TGT in the section on the rhetorical figure Amphibologia, i.e. a word that could have more than one meaning. Immediately following the couplet, Óláfr Þórðarson, the author of TGT, explains that litr ‘colour’ is the name of a dwarf and also a term for feminine beauty.

Notes: [All]: The couplet portrays the inability to speak as a typical motif of love-sickness, cf. e.g. Gríp 29, and further examples in Lowes (1913-14), Heinrichs (1988) and Wack (1990). — [1] viðr ‘makes’: Instead of the form viðr (< vinnr, see ANG §261), a result of regular sound change in the Viking Age, ms. A gives the later, analogical form vinnr, but the older form is preferable and has been adopted here. — [1] hilmir holmleggjar ‘the ruler of the island-bone [ROCK > DWARF = Litr (litr ‘colour’)]’: The kenning is an ofljóst construction based on the homonymy of the pers. n. Litr (dwarf-name, cf. Note to Þul Dverga 6/2) and the noun litr ‘colour, hue’ (TGT 1884, 198-9). In the context of the stanza litr refers to the appearance (Fritzner: litr 3) and beauty of a woman. Holmleggjar is formed according to the kenning pattern ‘bone of the earth’ for ‘stone’.

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. 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. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
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. Wack, Mary F. 1990. Lovesickness in the Middle Ages: The Viaticum and its Commentaries. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
9. Heinrichs, Anne. 1988. ‘Amor hereos als Gestaltungsprinzip der Rémundar saga keisarasonar’. skandinavistik 18, 125-39.
10. Lowes, John L. 1913-14. ‘The Loveres Maladye of Hereos’. MP 11, 491-546.
11. Internal references
12. (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 20 April 2024)
13. Not published: do not cite (Run^VI)
14. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Dverga heiti 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. 704.
15. Not published: do not cite ()