Sveinn Norðrdr 1^III

Þás élreifar ófu
Ægis dœtr ok tœttu
fǫls við frost of alnar
fjallgarðs rokur harðar.

Þás harðar rokur fǫls fjallgarðs ófu ok tœttu {élreifar dœtr Ægis}, of alnar við frost.

When hard whirlwinds from the white mountain range wove and tore apart {the storm-happy daughters of Ægir <giant>} [WAVES], nourished by frost.

Mss: R(26v), Tˣ(27r), W(57), B(5r), 744ˣ(31r) (SnE)

Readings: [1] ‑reifar: so all others, ‑refar R;    ófu: ‘afu’ B    [2] tœttu: so all others, teygðu R    [3] fǫls: fals all;    frost: frest W    [4] fjallgarðs: ‘f[…]’ B, ‘fiardgers’ 744ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 418, Skj BI, 387, Skald I, 192, NN §§903, 2989H; SnE 1848-87, I, 324-7, II, 529, III, 51-2, SnE 1931, 116, SnE 1998, I, 37.

Context: This helmingr is cited in the section of Skm exemplifying kennings for the sea. Strictly speaking, the stanza exemplifies kennings for the waves, said to be the daughters of the giant Ægir, a personification of the sea.

Notes: [All]: This helmingr is a subordinate clause so the full sense of the complete stanza can only be guessed at. There are two ways of construing the clause: as is done here, in Skj B and SnE 1998, and as suggested by Kock (NN §2989H). Kock takes élreifar dœtr Ægis ‘the storm-happy daughters of Ægir’ as the subject of the clause, with harðar rokur ‘hard whirlwinds’ as direct object. This gives the sense ‘when the storm-happy daughters of Ægir [WAVES] wove and tore apart hard whirlwinds, nourished by frost, from the white mountain range’. Grammatically, it is unexceptional, but it seems to be less good from the point of view of sense. — [2] dœtr Ægis ‘daughters of Ægir <giant> [WAVES]’: Ægir was a giant, the personification of the sea. His wife Rán personified the sea’s destructive power, while Ægir’s daughters are the waves; cf. st. 3/1 below, HHund I 29/6 and Gestumbl Heiðr 8-10^VIII, as well as Þul Sjóvar 4, Þul Waves and ESk Frag 17. In SnE 1998, I, 36, the prose text preceding the citation of this stanza names Ægir’s nine daughters, all with names suggesting the sea’s turbulence. — [2] tœttu ‘tore apart’: The verb tœta means ‘tear wool, tease or pick wool’, and is clearly the antithesis of ófu (l. 1, from vefa ‘weave, bring together’), describing the action of the whirlwinds in blowing the waves now together, now apart. Ms. R’s teygðu (from teygja ‘entice, lure, draw out’) is possible but less good than the majority mss’ reading, both in sense and because it does not provide aðalhending. — [3] fǫls ‘white’: All eds have emended the mss’ ‘fals’ to fǫls, following a suggestion of Konráð Gíslason (see Skj AI, 418 n.). The scribes may have sought to correct the rhyme between ǫ and a, which did not occur after the late C12th (see Hreinn Benediktsson 1963a). Fǫlr usually means ‘pale’, but here must refer to the snow-covered Greenland mountains.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj A = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15a. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. A: Tekst efter håndskrifterne. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1967. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
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. Hreinn Benediktsson. 1963a. ‘Phonemic Neutralization and Inaccurate Rhymes’. APS 26, 1-18.
8. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
9. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
10. Internal references
11. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 55 (Gestumblindi, Heiðreks gátur 8)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 417.
12. (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)
13. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Sjóvar heiti 4’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 836.
14. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Einarr Skúlason, Fragments 17’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 167.
15. Not published: do not cite ()
16. Elena Gurevich 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Heiti for waves’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 996. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=2988> (accessed 26 April 2024)