Þjóð Yt 2^I

En dagskjarr
Dúrnis niðja
salvǫrðuðr
Sveigði vélti,
þás í stein
hinn stórgeði
Dusla konr
ept dvergi hljóp.
Ok salr bjartr
þeira Sǫkmímis
jǫtunbyggðr
við jǫfri gein.

En {dagskjarr {{Dúrnis niðja} sal}vǫrðuðr} vélti Sveigði, þás {hinn stórgeði konr Dusla} hljóp í stein ept dvergi. Ok {bjartr jǫtunbyggðr salr þeira Sǫkmímis} gein við jǫfri.

And {the daylight-shy guard {of the hall {of the descendants of Dúrnir <dwarf>}}} [(lit. ‘hall-guard of the descendants of Dúrnir’) DWARFS > ROCK > DWARF] tricked Sveigðir when {the great-minded offspring of Dusli} [= Sveigðir] ran into the rock after the dwarf. And {the bright giant-inhabited hall of Sǫkmímir <giant> and his followers} [ROCK] gaped at the prince.

Mss: Kˣ(16r-v), papp18ˣ(4v), 521ˣ(13-14), F(3ra), J2ˣ(8r), R685ˣ(10r) (Hkr); 761aˣ(55r-v)

Readings: [2] Dúrnis: Durins papp18ˣ    [4] Sveigði: so F, J2ˣ, Svegði Kˣ, papp18ˣ, 521ˣ, R685ˣ, 761aˣ    [7] Dusla: so J2ˣ, R685ˣ, ‘dulsa’ Kˣ, papp18ˣ, 521ˣ, 761aˣ, ‘dysla’ F;    konr: korn R685ˣ    [9] salr: sal all    [11] ‑byggðr: ‑byðr F, ‑byggðir J2ˣ, ‘‑bygdor’ R685ˣ    [12] jǫfri: ‘jofro’ J2ˣ, R685ˣ

Editions: Skj AI, 7, Skj BI, 7, Skald I, 4, NN §§1782, 1783A; Hkr 1893-1901, I, 27, IV, 4-5, ÍF 26, 28, Hkr 1991, I, 15-16 (Yng ch. 12), F 1871, 10; Yng 1912, 20, 57, Yng 2000, 16; Yt 1914, 1, Yt 1925, 198, 216‑17.

Context:

King Sveigðir succeeds his father Fjǫlnir. He makes a vow to search for Óðinn and Goðheim(a)r, a name for Svíþjóð in mikla ‘Great Sweden’ according to Yng (ÍF 26, 9-10, 22). The evening after a feast at Steinn in eastern Sweden, the king sees a dwarf by a large rock. The dwarf invites the king to enter if he wants to see Óðinn. The king follows the dwarf, enters the rock and never comes out again.

Notes: [All]: Sveigðir’s death has been associated with a motif familiar from traditional folktales and known as (ModSwed.) bergtagning ‘abduction into a mountain by supernatural beings’ (see de Boor 1924, 552; Lindow 1995, 8; ‘Bergentrückt’ [‘mountain-lured’], HDA, 1, 1056-71; Boberg 1966, 109 (F 451.5.2.4 Dwarfs kidnap mortals)). — [1] dagskjarr ‘daylight-shy’: Dagskjarr is best interpreted as an epithet qualifying salvǫrðuðr ‘guard of the hall’ (Noreen 1921, 41) rather than as a proper name (Lindqvist 1936, 282). The cpd may suggest the notion that sunlight will turn a dwarf to stone; for this motif see Boberg (1966, 109 (F 451.3.2.1 Dwarfs turn to stone at sunrise)); Reichborn-Kjennerud (1934a, 280-3). — [2] Dúrnis ‘of Dúrnir’: See Note to Þul Dverga 3/8^III, Dúrnir. — [4] Sveigði ‘Sveigðir’: Like Fjǫlnir, Sveigðir is also attested as an Óðinn-heiti, e.g. in the kenning salr Sveigðis ‘hall of Sveigðir [SHIELD]’ in Gsind Hákdr 5/7. Sveigðir as a pers. n. is not attested, which suggests that this king’s name stems from legendary or mythical traditions. — [7] konr Dusla ‘offspring of Dusli [= Sveigðir]’: It is uncertain whether this kenning refers to a king of the Ynglingar in general or to Sveigðir himself. The word dusli is difficult because its transmission is not uniform in the mss and its reference is unclear. (a) It is most likely that dusli is a proper name. It may be a nominalized form of the adj. dusill ‘shabby, ragged’ and hence a nickname ‘the Shabby’ (cf. Lindquist 1929, 59), although ‘shabby’ seems an inappropriate notion in reference to an ancestor of the Yngling kings. (b) Noreen (1917, 2-5) reads dusla as m. dat. sg. of the weak form of the adj. dusill, qualifying dvergi ‘dwarf’ in the following line. This, however, involves a problematic partition of l. 7 (cf. NN §1782; Åkerlund 1939, 81). — [9-11] bjartr jǫtunbyggðr salr þeira Sǫkmímis ‘the bright giant-inhabited hall of Sǫkmímir <giant> and his followers [ROCK]’: Giants count, like dwarfs, as rock-dwellers, for which reason references to giants’ dwellings can denote a rocky cave. Although all mss read salbjartr, emendation to nom. sg. salr is required since it is the subject of gein ‘gaped’. — [10] þeira Sǫkmímis ‘of Sǫkmímir <giant> and his followers’: The line is hypermetrical, with not four but five syllables. This led Bugge (1894, 120 n. 2) to suggest the pronunciation þěra. Noreen (1892, 202) suggested ‑míms instead of ‑mímis. Finnur Jónsson (Hkr 1893-1901, IV) made a valid case against both ideas, and nothing can be added to his judgement that this is an insoluble problem. — [10] Sǫkmímis ‘of Sǫkmímir <giant>’: (a) The form Sǫk- is assumed here on the basis of all three ms. spellings (‘sꜹc-’ Kˣ, ‘so᷎c’ J2ˣ, ‘sꜹk’ F), though Sǫkkmímir occurs in Grí 50/2 (NK 67) and Þul Jǫtna I 6/5^III (and see Note there). (b) Kock’s suggestion of Søkkmímir ‘Wealth-Mímir’ (cf. NN §1783A) is attractive, given the parallel with Hoddmímir ‘Treasure-Mímir’ in Vafþr 45/3 (NK 53). However, the ms. spellings do not favour normalised ‑kk and the existence of a word søkk ‘treasure’ in ON is uncertain (see Eyv Lv 4/5, Eyv Hál 1/10, Anon Pl 20/6^VII (emendation) and Notes to these). (c) Interpretations of the name on the basis of søkkva ‘to sink’, i.e. as ‘giant who lives in the deep’ or similar (Bugge 1894, 120 n. 2; Yt 1925), are also problematic in the light of the ms. spellings.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
3. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. Boberg, Inger M. 1966. Motif-Index of Early Icelandic Literature. BA 27. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
5. NK = Neckel, Gustav and Hans Kuhn (1899), eds. 1983. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern. 2 vols. I: Text. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter.
6. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
7. Hkr 1893-1901 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1893-1901. Heimskringla: Nóregs konunga sǫgur af Snorri Sturluson. 4 vols. SUGNL 23. Copenhagen: Møller.
8. Hkr 1991 = Bergljót S. Kristjánsdóttir et al., eds. 1991. Heimskringla. 3 vols. Reykjavík: Mál og menning.
9. F 1871 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1871. Fríssbók: Codex Frisianus. En samling af norske konge-sagaer. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
10. Lindquist, Ivar. 1929. Norröna lovkväden från 800 och 900 talen. I: Förslag till restituerad täxt jämte översättning. Lund: Gleerup.
11. Noreen, Erik. 1921. Studier i fornvästnordisk diktning. Uppsala: Akademiska bokhandeln.
12. Reichborn-Kjennerud, Ingjald. 1934a. ‘Den gamle dvergetro’. In Rooth 1934, 278-88.
13. Yng 2000 = Jørgensen, Jon Gunnar, ed. 2000b. Ynglinga saga etter Kringla (AM 35 fol). Series of Dissertations submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of Oslo 80. Oslo: Unipub forlag.
14. Yt 1914 = Grape, Anders and Birger Nerman, eds. 1914. Ynglingatal I-IV. Meddelanden från Nordiska Seminariet 3. Uppsala: Berling.
15. Yng 1912 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912. Ynglingasaga. Copenhagen: Gad.
16. Yt 1925 = Noreen, Adolf, ed. 1925. Ynglingatal: Text, översättning och kommentar. Stockholm: Lagerström.
17. Boor, Helmut de. 1924. ‘Der Zwerg in Skandinavien’. In Festschrift Eugen Mogk zum 70. Geburtstag 19. Juli 1924. Halle an der Saale: Max Niemeyer, 536-57.
18. Bugge, Sophus. 1894. Bidrag til den ældste skaldedigtnings historie. Christiania (Oslo): Aschehoug.
19. HDA = Bächtold-Stäubli, Hanns and Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer, eds. 1927-1942. Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens. 10 vols. Berlin and Leipzig: de Gruyter.
20. Lindow, John. 1995. ‘Supernatural Others and Ethnic Others: A Millennium of World View’. SS 67, 8-31.
21. Lindqvist, Sune. 1936. Uppsala högar och Ottarshögen. Stockholm: Wahlström & Widstrand.
22. Noreen, Adolf. 1892. ‘Mytiska beståndsdelar i Ynglingatal’. In Uppsalastudier tillegnade Sophus Bugge på hans 60-åra födelsedag den 5 januari 1893. Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell, 194-225.
23. Noreen, Adolf. 1917. ‘Sjön Dusslingen m. fl. ortnamn och Ynglingatals Sveigder-strof’. NoB 5, 1-5.
24. Åkerlund, Walter. 1939. Studier över Ynglingatal. Skrifta utgivna av Vetenskaps-Societeten i Lund 23. Lund: Gleerup.
25. Internal references
26. (forthcoming), ‘ Heimskringla, Ynglinga saga’ 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, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=158> (accessed 19 April 2024)
27. Jonna Louis-Jensen and Tarrin Wills (eds) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Plácitusdrápa 20’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 194.
28. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Jǫtna heiti I 6’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 716.
29. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Dverga heiti 3’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 697.
30. Not published: do not cite ()
31. Russell Poole (ed.) 2012, ‘Eyvindr skáldaspillir Finnsson, Háleygjatal 1’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 197.
32. Russell Poole (ed.) 2012, ‘Eyvindr skáldaspillir Finnsson, Lausavísur 4’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 219.
33. Russell Poole (ed.) 2012, ‘Guthormr sindri, Hákonardrápa 5’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 163.
34. Not published: do not cite ()