Sveinn Frag 1^III

Þar kømr, lyngs en lǫngum
lind vanði mik strindar
leika leynisíka
lævi, ô til sævar.

Þar kømr ô til sævar, en {lind {strindar {leynisíka lyngs}}} vanði mik lǫngum leika lævi.

There the river comes to the sea, but {the linden tree {of the land {of the hiding fishes of the heather}}} [SNAKES > GOLD > WOMAN] for a long time accustomed me to use deceit.

Mss: A(7v), W(110) (TGT)

Readings: [1] lyngs: langs W;    en: að W

Editions: Skj AI, 418, Skj BI, 388, Skald I, 192; SnE 1848-87, II, 178-9, 425, III, 151, TGT 1884, 30, 113, 231, TGT 1927, 84, 107-8.

Context: This helmingr is cited by Óláfr Þórðarson in ch. 16 of the Málskrúðsfræði section of TGT to exemplify the trope of allegoria, which he defines as conveying a meaning other than the literal sense of the words used.

Notes: [All]: The full context of this helmingr is unknown, but the subject-matter seems unrelated to Norðrdr. It certainly does not refer directly to the weather in Greenland. The significance of the allusion to a woman who accustoms the poet to use deceit, presumably in a love-entanglement, is also unknown. The helmingr may well be part of the last stanza of a poem, whether a drápa or not. For the reason, see the following Note. — [1, 4] þar kømr ô til sævar ‘there the river comes to the sea’: This statement provides TGT’s example of allegoria. The poet uses the image of a river ending its course in the sea as a way of saying that he is coming to the end of his poem. The metaphor may have been conventional or it may have been a deliberate borrowing; Úlfr Uggason uses the same expression in Húsdr 12/1, 3 and it also occurs in Anon Mhkv 27/5. — [3, 4] leika lævi ‘to use deceit’: Lit. ‘to play deceit’. — [3] leynisíka ‘of the hiding fishes’: The base-word of a kenning for a snake. Síkr is the Old Norse word for a kind of whitefish, either the houting (Coregonus lavaretus), an extinct species of whitefish, Coregonus oxyrhinchus, once found in rivers, lakes and the Baltic and eastern parts of the North Sea, or Coregonus maraena, another European whitefish. On these fish, see FishBase (www.fishbase.org). See also Note to Þul Fiska 2/3.

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. 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.
6. FishBase. Ed. R. Froese and D. Pauly. <www.fishbase.org>
7. Internal references
8. (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 24 April 2024)
10. Roberta Frank (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Poems, Málsháttakvæði 27’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1240.
11. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Fiska heiti 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 853.
12. Margaret Clunies Ross 2017, ‘ Sveinn, Norðrsetudrápa’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 398. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1408> (accessed 24 April 2024)
13. Edith Marold (ed.) 2017, ‘Úlfr Uggason, Húsdrápa 12’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 424.