Hfr Hákdr 5^III

Sannyrðum spenr sverða
snarr þiggjandi viggjar
barrhaddaða byrjar
biðkvôn und sik Þriðja.

{Snarr þiggjandi {viggjar byrjar}} spenr {barrhaddaða biðkvôn Þriðja} und sik {sannyrðum sverða}.

{The swift receiver {of the horse of the breeze}} [SHIP > SEAFARER] draws under himself {the foliage-haired waiting wife of Þriði <= Óðinn>} [= Jǫrð (jǫrð ‘earth’)] {by means of true words of swords} [BATTLE].

Mss: R(21r), Tˣ(21v), W(45), U(26r), B(4r) (SnE)

Readings:

Editions: Skj AI, 155, Skj BI, 147, Skald I, 80, NN §§1911B, 1955; SnE 1848-87, I, 236-7, II, 303, 518-19, III, 4, SnE 1931, 89, SnE 1998, I, 8; Davidson 1983, 449, 497-503.

Context: Skm cites this half-stanza as the last in a series illustrating kennings and heiti for Óðinn. Directly after it is the comment (SnE 1998, I, 8): Hér er þess dœmi at jǫrð er kǫlluð kona Óðins í skáldskap ‘Here is an example of earth being called the wife of Óðinn in poetry’.

Notes: [All]: Hákon’s conquest of Norway is represented here as the seduction of a woman who personifies the land. The hieros gamos ‘sacred marriage’ topos (see Introduction) is sharpened by the skaldic technique of ofljóst. ‘The wife of Þriði’ is the goddess Jǫrð and so the common noun jǫrð ‘earth’, making the equation lady = land especially persuasive. — [1, 4] spenr … und sik ‘draws under himself’: A conventional phrase for the winning of land, both in verse (Sigv Knútdr 6/2-3^I; Egill Lv 45/1^V (Eg 129), here með orðum ‘with words’, cf. sannyrðum ‘true words’, l. 1) and prose (Fritzner: spenja). The phrase also works on the metaphorical level of Hákon’s seduction of Jǫrð, as spenja may be applied to a person, with the meaning ‘lure, entice’. — [2] snarr ‘swift’: So B. Ms. R’s þvarr ‘diminished’ spoils both sense and metre. Mss Tˣ and U have snarþiggjandi ‘swift-receiver’, which is also acceptable, while W’s scribe may have attempted to improve an R-like reading. — [3] barrhaddaða ‘foliage-haired’: Barr n. means both ‘barley’ and ‘pine-needles’. Finnur Jónsson (LP: barrhaddaðr) favours the latter, with reference to the dense evergreen forests of Norway (cf. Tindr’s Hákdr 7/7, 8^I, which calls Norway mǫrk heiðins dóms ‘forest of heathendom’), but ‘barley’ would fit well with the fertility theme and is commoner in skaldic verse. Possibly the ambiguity is deliberate, as Davidson (1983, 502) and Dronke (1997, 413-14) suggest. The conceit of plants as the hair of the land is a common one, perhaps drawing on the myth of the primeval giant Ymir (Gylf, SnE 2005, 11-12; Grí 40). Ms. R’s meaningless ‘biarr’ is presumably a scribal error. — [4] biðkvôn ‘waiting wife’: Óðinn may have abandoned his wife Jǫrð for the goddess Frigg, although this is not stated explicitly in Old Norse sources. The skald apparently pictures Jǫrð as awaiting (in vain) Óðinn’s return, and thus all the more ripe for Hákon to seduce. Bið- could alternatively be from biðja ‘woo, court, propose to’ rather than bíða ‘wait’, as Kock (NN §§1911B, 1955) argues. The phrase would then mean ‘wooed woman’, and suggest that Hákon actively desires Jǫrð/Norway. There are no other Old Norse compounds with bið- from biðja as the first element, however, but compounds with bið- from bíða are rather common. Bifkvôn ‘trembling wife’, the reading of R, spoils the hending with Þriðja; Faulkes’s (SnE 1998, I, 158) suggestion that it refers to a volcanic landscape is attractive but as he admits, applies better to Iceland than to Norway. — [4] und ‘under’: The majority reading is preferable to R’s of ‘around’, as spenja und is a standard phrase whereas spenja of is unknown.

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. 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.
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. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
8. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
9. Davidson, Daphne L. 1983. ‘Earl Hákon and his Poets’. D. Phil. thesis. Oxford.
10. SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
11. Dronke, Ursula, ed. and trans. 1997. The Poetic Edda. II: Mythological Poems. Oxford: Clarendon.
12. Internal references
13. (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 20 April 2024)
14. (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 20 April 2024)
15. Not published: do not cite ()
16. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2022, ‘Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar 129 (Egill Skallagrímsson, Lausavísur 45)’ 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. 383.
17. Matthew Townend (ed.) 2012, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Knútsdrápa 6’ 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. 657.