Gríml Lv 2^VIII (GrL 3)

Þrífiz hvárgi         Þjassa dóttir
brúðir verstar;         brátt skal ek reiðaz.
Rétt skal ek ykr,         áðr röðull skíni,
vörgum senda         víst til bráðar.

Þrífiz hvárgi {dóttir Þjassa}, verstar brúðir; ek skal brátt reiðaz. Ek skal víst senda ykr rétt til bráðar vörgum, áðr röðull skíni.

May neither {daughter of Þjazi <giant>} [GIANTESS] thrive, the worst women; I shall fly into a rage quickly. I will certainly dispatch you two straight as meat for wolves before the sun shines.

Mss: 343a(58r), 471(57v) (GrL)

Readings: [5] Rétt skal ek ykr: so 471, ykr skal ek rétt 343a    [8] bráðar: bráða 471

Editions: Skj AII, 288, Skj BII, 309, Skald II, 164; FSN 2, 145-6, FSGJ 2, 187, Anderson 1990, 61, 111-12, 445; Edd. Min. 86.

Context: This stanza follows straight on from GrL 2 and is introduced by the remark: Grímr kvað ‘Grímr spoke’.

Notes: [2] Þjassa ‘of Þjazi <giant>’: This name is written with <ss> (or <sss>) in all mss of GrL; such forms as Þjassi (nom.) are a later variant (c. 1250 and later, ANG §274.2) of Þjazi, the name of a giant whom the gods eventually kill after a series of hostile encounters or dealings with him related in Þjóð Haustl 1-13^III; cf. SnE 1998, I, 1-2 and Bragi Frag 2^III. In that myth Þjazi’s daughter Skaði seeks to take vengeance for him. In GrL 2 Feima states that her father is named Hrímnir; when Grímr refers to her and her sister here as (hvárgi) dóttir Þjassa ‘(neither) daughter of Þjazi’, this pers. n. stands for any giant name and is the determinant of a giantess-kenning. — [3] brúðir ‘women’: Several mss (1006ˣ, 173ˣ, 342ˣ, 109a IIˣ) offer the reading bornar (p. p. f. pl. nom. ‘born’), which makes equally good sense here: bornar verstar (‘the worst ones [ever] born’). — [5]: MS 471’s reading has been preferred here over that of 343a because the alliteration (on rétt) falls correctly on the first lift of a Type E-line, whereas it falls incorrectly on the second lift in 343a. — [8] bráðar ‘meat’: The reading bráða (gen. pl.) which appears in 471 and several other mss is equally acceptable here. Bráð occurs frequently in poetry both in the sg. and pl. with reference to the corpses of men or animals as booty for wolves or birds of prey (cf. LP: brôð).

References

1. Bibliography
2. FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
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. ANG = Noreen, Adolf. 1923. Altnordische Grammatik I: Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer. 1st edn. 1884. 5th unrev. edn. 1970. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
6. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
7. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
8. Edd. Min. = Heusler, Andreas and Wilhelm Ranisch, eds. 1903. Eddica Minora: Dichtungen eddischer Art aus den Fornaldarsögur und anderen Prosawerken. Dortmund: Ruhfus. Rpt. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
9. Anderson, Sarah M. 1990. ‘The Textual Transmission of Two Fornaldarsögur: Ketils saga høings and Gríms saga loðinkinna’. Ph.D. thesis. Cornell University…
10. Internal references
11. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Gríms saga loðinkinna’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 288. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=76> (accessed 26 April 2024)
12. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Bragi inn gamli Boddason, Fragments 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. 56.
13. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Þjóðólfr ór Hvini, Haustlǫng 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 432.
14. Beatrice La Farge (ed.) 2017, ‘Gríms saga loðinkinna 2 (Feima Hrímnisdóttir, Lausavísa 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 290.