ÞSjár Frag 4^III

The helmingr (ÞSjár Frag 4), which Jón Sigurðsson (SnE 1848-87, III, 557) assigns to a lost encomium, is recorded in AM 742 4°ˣ (742ˣ) between two stanzas (Snæbj Lv 1 and ESk Frag 14) from Skm. Ms. 742ˣ was written by Björn Jónsson of Skarðsá (1574-1656) in the first half of the seventeenth century. That ms. contains a redaction of LaufE with additional material, including this half-stanza by Þórðr Særeksson. Faulkes (LaufE 1979, 107 n. 1) believes that Björn found the half-stanza, along with other additions, in a no longer extant ms. of SnE. The name of the poet is given in the margin (Þórðr Sjáreksson kvað ‘Þórðr Sjáreksson said’). The helmingr is also recorded in Thott 1496 4°ˣ (1496ˣ) from the first half of the eighteenth century, probably a copy of the same redaction as 742ˣ (see Jón Helgason 1966a, 175-6), as well as in Lbs 1116 4°ˣ (1116ˣ), where it is located at the top of the last page of the ms. (p. 421a, numbered p. 321a) with the following caption: Ur Laufáseddu med hond Bjarnar á Skardsá Þórdur Sjáreksson ‘From Laufás Edda in the hand of Björn á Skarðsá Þórðr Sjáreksson’. The helmingr is corrupt, and previous attempts at reconstruction are unsatisfactory because they contain metrical errors.

Svát ór fitjar fjǫtri
flóðs ásynja, blóði
— raust bifask rǫmm — en systra,
rýtr, eymylvir spýtir.

Svát {ásynja flóðs} rýtr ór {fjǫtri fitjar}, en {eymylvir} spýtir {blóði systra}; rǫmm raust bifask.

So that {the goddess of the sea} [= Rán] wails from {the fetter of the meadow} [SEA], and {the island-grinder} [MAELSTROM] spits out {the sisters’ blood} [WATER]; the strong voice trembles.

Mss: 742ˣ(23r), 1116ˣ(421a), 1496ˣ(52r) (LaufE)

Readings: [1] ór: er 1116ˣ    [2] ásynja: ásynjum all;    blóði: so 1116ˣ, 1496ˣ, ‘b.ődi’ 742ˣ    [3] bifask: ‘byriast’ 742ˣ, ‘byriar’ 1116ˣ, ‘biriast’ 1496ˣ    [4] eymylvir: ‘Eÿmilrir’ 742ˣ, ‘eymilrir’ 1116ˣ, ‘og mylrer’ 1496ˣ;    spýtir: ‘snijtir’ 742ˣ, ‘snýtir’ 1116ˣ, ‘hnyter’ 1496ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 330, Skj BI, 304, Skald I, 154, NN §1132; CPB II, 55, Bugge 1886, 335-8.

Context: The helmingr illustrates kennings for ‘ocean’: hier er hafid kallað mylrir ‑ eÿía og fitiar fiǫtur ‘here the ocean is called mylrir of islands and the meadow’s fetter’ (742ˣ).

Notes: [All]: The first, subordinate clause cannot be syntactically dependent on the following main clause (as in Skj B); rather, it must refer to something described in the preceding, now lost helmingr (see NN §1132). — [2] ásynja flóðs ‘the goddess of the sea [= Rán]’: Ásynjum f. dat. pl. ‘goddesses’ (so all mss) makes no sense syntactically and has been emended to ásynja f. nom. sg. to provide a subject for the verb rýtr 3rd pers. sg. pres. indic. ‘wails’ (l. 3). Rán, wife of the sea-giant Ægir in Old Norse myth, is a personification of the ocean (see Note to Þul Ásynja 2/7). — [2, 3] blóði systra ‘the sisters’ blood [WATER]’: These sisters are the waves, the daughters of Rán and Ægir, and their blood is ‘water’ (see SnE 1998, I, 36, 95, ESk Frag 17 and Þul Waves). — [3] raust ‘voice’: The mss read ‘raust’ which can be normalised as either raust ‘voice’ (so Skj B, Skald and the present edn) or rǫst ‘current’ (so Bugge 1886, 336-7). Both readings are possible (see Note below). — [3] bifask (3rd pers. sg. pres. indic.) ‘trembles’: As it stands in the mss (normalised byrjask ‘begins’ 742ˣ, 1496ˣ or byrjar ‘begins’ 1116ˣ), the line is unmetrical (heptasyllabic), and all previous eds delete en ‘and, but’. However, this conj. cannot be omitted without creating a line that is otherwise unattested in dróttkvætt poetry. One can only arrive at a metrically correct construction by replacing the long-stemmed disyllabic verb byrjask (or byrjar) ‘begins’ with a short-stemmed verb that is neutralised in the first dip. Bifask ‘trembles’ may have been misread as byrjask, i.e. <yr> for <if> with insular <f>. The clause rǫmm raust bifask ‘the strong voice trembles’ is taken here to refer to the voice of Rán, who is described elsewhere as ‘the loud-voiced one’ (háraust, SnSt Ht 19/6), while her daughters, the waves, are called raustljótar ‘ugly-voiced’ (RvHbreiðm Hl 54/6). Alternatively, if normalised rǫst ‘current’ is adopted, the clause reads ‘the strong current trembles’, which is also possible. The connection between rǫst ‘current’ and bifask ‘trembles’ is also made in other skaldic stanzas, e.g. vestr bifask rengr í rǫstum ‘in the west, ship-frames tremble in the currents’ (Kali Lv 1/3^II). — [4] rýtr (3rd pers. sg. pres. indic.) ‘wails’: This strong verb is a hap. leg. which is cognate with OE rēotan ‘weep, lament, wail’, OHG riozan ‘weep’, MLG rēten ‘make noise, cry’ and OSwed. riuta ‘bellow’ (see AEW: rjóta). — [4] eymylvir ‘the island-grinder [MAELSTROM]’: This cpd, which is not attested elsewhere, is formed from ey f. ‘island’ and mylvir m. ‘grinder’, an agent noun from a weak verb *mylva (Gmc *mulwjan) ‘grind’ (AEW: mylvir). — [4] spýtir ‘spits out’: This emendation follows most earlier eds (Bugge 1886, 336 retains the reading of 742ˣ, 1116ˣ). Although the expression snýta blóði ‘snort blood’ (i.e. ‘get a bloody nose’) is common, it hardly makes sense in the present context, and spýtr ‘spits out’ could at some point have been confused graphemically with snýtr ‘snorts’. The reading of 1496ˣ, ‘hnyter’, cannot be construed as an Old Norse word and must be a scribal error.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. LaufE 1979 = Faulkes, Anthony, ed. 1979. Edda Magnúsar Ólafssonar (Laufás Edda). RSÁM 13. Vol. I of Two Versions of Snorra Edda from the 17th Century. Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, 1977-9.
7. AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
8. Jón Helgason. 1966a. ‘Verse aus der Laufás-Edda’. In Rudolph et al. 1966, 175-80.
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. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
11. Bugge, Sophus. 1886. ‘Bemærkninger til norröne digte V. En Þórðr Sjáreksson tillagt halvstrophe’. ANF 3, 335-8.
12. Internal references
13. 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].
14. (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 27 April 2024)
15. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Ásynja 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. 765.
16. 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.
17. 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 27 April 2024)
18. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Kali Sæbjarnarson, Lausavísa 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 393-4.
19. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Rǫgnvaldr jarl and Hallr Þórarinsson, Háttalykill 54’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1061.
20. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 19’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1124.
21. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Þórðr Særeksson (Sjáreksson), Fragments 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. 480.
22. (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 27 April 2024)