SnSt Ht 49^III

Hjaldrremmir tekr Hildi
— hringr brestr at gjǫf — festa;
hnígr und Hǫgna meyjar
hers valdandi tjald.
Heðins mála býr hvílu
hjálmlestanda flestum;
morðaukinn þiggr mæki
mund Hjaðninga sprund.

{Hjaldrremmir} tekr festa Hildi; hringr brestr at gjǫf; valdandi hers hnígr und {tjald {meyjar Hǫgna}}. {Mála Heðins} býr {flestum hjálmlestanda} hvílu; {sprund Hjaðninga} þiggr mund, morðaukinn mæki.

{The battle-strengthener} [WARRIOR] begins to betroth himself to Hildr; the ring breaks as bride-payment; the ruler of the army bends down beneath {the tent {of Hǫgni’s <legendary hero’s> daughter}} [= Hildr (hildr ‘battle’) > SHIELD]. {Heðinn’s <legendary hero’s> beloved} [= Hildr (hildr ‘battle’)] prepares a bed {for most helmet-damagers} [WARRIORS]; {the woman of the Hjaðningar <Heðinn’s followers>} [= Hildr (hildr ‘battle’)] receives a bride-payment, a battle-renowned sword.

Mss: R(49v), Tˣ(51v), W(146), U(54r) (SnE)

Readings: [2] hringr: hring‑ Tˣ;    festa: flesta U    [5] Heðins: heiðins Tˣ;    mála: málu U    [6] ‑lestanda: ‑lestandi Tˣ, U

Editions: Skj AII, 65, Skj BII, 74, Skald II, 42; SnE 1848-87, I, 662-3, II, 393, III, 123, SnE 1879-81, I, 8, 80, II, 20, SnE 1931, 236, SnE 2007, 23; Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, I, 29.

Context: The dróttkvætt variant is stýft ‘apocopated’. The last syllable in ll. 4 and 8 is left off, creating catalectic, pentasyllabic lines.

Notes: [All]: The heading in Tˣ is 41. This particular variant is not attested elsewhere. — [All]: The imagery in this stanza is taken from the story of Hildr Hǫgnadóttir and Heðinn Hjarrandason as told in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 72-3; see also Bragi Rdr 8-11 and RvHbreiðm Hl 45-6). Hildr means ‘battle’, and Snorri plays on the double entendre throughout the stanza in a series of ofljóst ‘too transparent’ constructions. On Snorri’s use of valkyrie imagery in this and other stanzas of Ht, see Quinn 2007. — [1, 2] tekr festa Hildi ‘begins to betroth himself to Hildr’: Because hildr also means battle, the imagery is that of a warrior engaging in battle. — [2] hringr brestr at gjǫf ‘the ring breaks as bride-payment’: Hringr ‘ring’ can also mean ‘sword’ (the ring at the sword-hilt, pars pro toto for ‘sword’, see LP: 2. hringr and Þul Sverða 7/7), meaning that the sword shatters in battle. If hringr is taken in the meaning ‘vagina’, however, the clause could have a third level of meaning (for other sexual innuendos in connection with Hildr and ‘ring’, see Clunies Ross 1973b). — [2] at gjǫf ‘as bride-payment’: Gjǫf usually means ‘gift’ (Heggstad et al. 2008: gjǫf 1), but it is taken here in the meaning ‘bride-payment’ (ibid.: gjǫf 2), i.e. the gift that a bridegroom gives the bride (= mundr ‘bride-payment’ (l. 8)). In this case, then, the bride-payment that Hildr receives is a morðaukinn mæki ‘battle-renowned sword’ (l. 7). For the meaning of the prep. at ‘as’, see Note to st. 28/6. — [3-4]: The last clause in this helmingr plays on the imagery of warriors bending down beneath a woman’s tent, where the tent is a part of a kenning for ‘shield’. — [5-8]: The word-play (and sexual imagery) from the first helmingr continues in the second, where the woman, Hildr (‘battle’), prepares a bed for warriors, i.e. causes their death on the battlefield (ll. 5-6), and receives a sword as a bride-payment (a weapon left as a part of spoils of war) (ll. 7-8), or in less innocuous sense, she is being deflowered. — [6] hjálmlestanda ‘helmet-damagers [WARRIORS]’: Lit. ‘helmet-damager’ (sg.).

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. 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.
5. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
6. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
7. Konráð Gíslason. 1895-7. Efterladte skrifter. 2 vols. I: Forelæsninger over oldnordiske skjaldekvad. II: Forelæsninger og videnskablige afhandlinger. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
8. Quinn, Judy, Kate Heslop and Tarrin Wills, eds. 2007. Learning and Understanding in the Old Norse World: Essays in Honour of Margaret Clunies Ross. Medieval Texts and Cultures of Northern Europe 18. Turnhout: Brepols.
9. Clunies Ross, Margaret. 1973b. ‘Hildr’s Ring: A Problem in the Ragnarsdrápa, Strophes 8-12’. MS 6, 75-92.
10. SnE 2007 = Snorri Sturluson. 2007. Edda: Háttatal. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
11. SnE 1879-81 = Möbius, Theodor, ed. 1879-81. Hattatal Snorra Sturlusonar. 2 vols. Halle an de Saale: Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses.
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 26 April 2024)
14. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Háttatal’ 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=165> (accessed 26 April 2024)
15. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Sverða heiti 7’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 802.
16. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Bragi inn gamli Boddason, Ragnarsdrápa 8’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 39.
17. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill 45’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1053.