Ormr Woman 4^III

Skorða vas í fǫt fœrð
fjarðbeins afarhrein
nýri (sǫng nadd-Freyr)
nisting (of mjaðar Hrist).

{Skorða {fjarðbeins}} vas fœrð í afarhrein fǫt nýri nisting; {nadd-Freyr} sǫng of {Hrist mjaðar}.

{The prop {of the fjord-bone}} [STONE > WOMAN] was clothed in exceedingly clean garments with new stitching; {the spear-Freyr <god>} [WARRIOR] sang about {the Hrist <valkyrie> of mead} [WOMAN].

Mss: R(33r), Tˣ(34v), W(76), U(32r), A(10v), C(10v) (SnE); W(109) (TGT, ll. 1-2); 2368ˣ(119), 2368ˣ(133) (l. 1), 743ˣ(99v) (ll. 1-2) (LaufE)

Readings: [2] afar‑: ‘anar’ W(109);    ‑hrein: hreins C, teins W(109)    [3] nýri: nýtri A;    sǫng: slǫng A

Editions: Skj AI, 415, Skj BI, 385, Skald I, 191; SnE 1848-87, I, 410-11, II, 324, 435, 584, III, 74, SnE 1931, 146, SnE 1998, I, 64; SnE 1848-87, II, 162-3, TGT 1884, 28, 104, TGT 1927, 76, 105; LaufE 1979, I, 379, 399.

Context: In Skm (SnE) and LaufE the stanza is quoted to illustrate the use of the base-word skorð ‘prop’ in kennings for ‘woman’. In TGT it illustrates the use of inanimate metaphors for something animate (here, skorða fjarðbeins ‘prop of the fjord-bone [STONE > WOMAN]’).

Notes: [All]: This stanza, like st. 5, may contain elements of the Snæfríðr legend (for which see Introduction). In the Flat version of the story, a magical coverlet or shroud (blæja) called Svásanautr ‘Svási’s gift’ is draped over the woman upon her death and it prevents her body from putrefying (Flat 1860-8, I, 582). — [1] fœrð í ‘clothed in’: Lit. ‘conveyed into’. — [3] sǫng ‘sang’: In the present edn this reading (3rd pers. sg. pret. indic. of syngja), found in all mss except A, is retained, in view of its much stronger support in the paradosis and its status as the lectio difficilior as contrasted with slǫng ‘slung, cast’. The subject of the verb is nadd-Freyr ‘the spear-Freyr’ (l. 3), while of Hrist mjaðar ‘about the Hrist of mead’ (l. 4) is understood as the theme of the ‘song’. The song could be a lament (grátr) over the dead woman. The word order is more complex in this interpretation than if A is followed, but it is not greater than the complexity seen in st. 2. All previous eds adopt the reading slǫng ‘slung’ (< slyngva), uniquely attested in A. The word order for the stanza as a whole is then as follows: Skorða fjarðbeins vas fœrð í afarhrein fǫt; nadd-Freyr slǫng nýri nisting of Hrist mjaðar ‘The prop of the fjord-bone [STONE > WOMAN] was clothed in exceedingly clean garments; the spear-Freyr <god> [WARRIOR] cast new stitching about the Hrist <valkyrie> of mead [WOMAN]’. However, a reliance on A seems unwarranted. The reading nýtri ‘useful, good’ (f. dat. sg.), likewise found only in A, for nýri ‘new’ (l. 3) in all other mss, is unlikely to be original because it entails loss of skothending with Freyr. This raises the suspicion that both nýtri and slǫng are innovations, perhaps the product of scribal enhancement. — [4] nisting ‘stitching’: This word occurs five times, only here in poetry, and always in the sense of ‘stitching, sewing’ (LP, Fritzner: nisting; cf. citations in ONP: nisting). The extended sense ‘garment’ posited uniquely for this stanza by Sveinbjörn Egilsson (LP (1860): nisting), followed by Guðbrandur Vigfússon (CPB II, 323) and Finnur Jónsson (Skj B, LP: nisting), is not warranted, since fǫt ‘garments’ can be envisaged as undergoing ‘stitching’ or ‘sewing’ to adapt them to fit the dead woman, perhaps by way of being ‘taken in’ or ‘gathered’. The case of nisting is dat. (instrumental), indicating the manner in which or means by which the corpse is conveyed into the fǫt. In previous eds it is taken as the dat. object of slǫng (ms. A). Such flexionless dat. forms start to supplant older forms in -u in the C11th or 12th (Finnur Jónsson 1901, 40-1; ANG §376).

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. 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.
7. LP (1860) = Sveinbjörn Egilsson, ed. 1860. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis. Copenhagen: Societas Regia antiquariorum septentrionalium.
8. 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.
9. CPB = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and F. York Powell, eds. 1883. Corpus poeticum boreale: The Poetry of the Old Northern Tongue from the Earliest Times to the Thirteenth Century. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon. Rpt. 1965, New York: Russell & Russell.
10. Finnur Jónsson. 1901. Det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog omtr. 800-1300. SUGNL 28. Copenhagen: Møller.
11. Flat 1860-8 = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and C. R. Unger, eds. 1860-8. Flateyjarbók. En samling af norske konge-sagaer med indskudte mindre fortællinger om begivenheder i og udenfor Norge samt annaler. 3 vols. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
12. 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.
13. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
14. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
15. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
16. 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.
17. Internal references
18. 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].
19. (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 25 April 2024)
20. (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 25 April 2024)
21. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Laufás Edda’ 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=10928> (accessed 25 April 2024)