Eil Þdr 8III/1 — herðar ‘shoulders’
Harðvaxnar leit herðar
hallands of sik falla
(gatat maðr) njótr (in neytri)
njarð- (rôð fyr sér) -gjarðar.
Þverrir lét, nema þyrri
Þorns barna sér, Mǫrnar
snerriblóð, til svíra
salþaks megin vaxa.
Njótr njarðgjarðar leit harðvaxnar herðar hallands falla of sik; maðr gatat in neytri rôð fyr sér. Þverrir barna Þorns lét megin vaxa sér til svíra salþaks, nema snerriblóð Mǫrnar þyrri.
The user of the strength-belt [= Þórr] saw the hard-grown shoulders of the sloping-land [MOUNTAIN > ROCKS] fall around him; the man could not find a useful solution for himself. The diminisher of the children of Þorn <giant> [GIANTS > = Þórr] said that his strength would grow to the neck of the roof of the earth [SKY] unless the rushing blood of Mǫrn <female mythical being> [RIVER] receded.
readings
[1] herðar: herðir all
notes
[1] herðar ‘the shoulders’: The emendation (so Finnur Jónsson 1900b, 384; Skj B; NN §449; Reichardt 1948, 352) is necessary because herðr ‘shoulder’, a f. jō-stem, has the ending ‑ar in acc. pl. Faulkes (SnE 1998, II, 307) tries to avoid emendation by combining herðir ‘the hardener, promoter’ with hallands, which he interprets as ‘whetstone-land’ (ibid., 300), a kenning for ‘sword’. Herðir hallands ‘the sword-impeller’ would then be a warrior-kenning for Þórr. However, hallr is not attested in the meaning ‘whetstone’, which is always called hein. As a consequence, Faulkes (ibid., 302) is forced to interpret harðvaxnar as a noun, ‘mightily grown, swollen’, designating the rivers. — [1-2] harðvaxnar herðar hallands ‘the hard-grown shoulders of the sloping-land [MOUNTAIN > ROCKS]’: This rock-kenning follows the pattern ‘bones of the earth’, i.e. the ‘shoulders’ are shoulder bones. There are two possible interpretations of halland: (a) as a cpd consisting of the adj. hallr ‘sloping’ and land ‘land’ or (b) as a cpd consisting of hallr ‘stone’ and land ‘land’. Both interpretations yield a kenning for ‘mountain’. Since halland is the determinant in a kenning for ‘stone, rocks’, it is preferable to choose option (a) i.e. halland ‘sloping-land’. The interpretation as ‘stone-land’ would duplicate the referent ‘stone’ in the kenning (‘the hard shoulders of the stone-land [MOUNTAIN > ROCKS]’) which ought to be avoided according to the rules of kenning formation (cf. hallvǫllr st. 15/2 and Note there).
kennings
- harðvaxnar herðar hallands — the hard-grown shoulders of the sloping-land [ROCKS]
grammar
case: acc.
number: pl.