Cookies on our website

We use cookies on this website, mainly to provide a secure browsing experience but also to collect statistics on how the website is used. You can find out more about the cookies we set, the information we store and how we use it on the cookies page.

Continue

skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

Menu Search

Eil Þdr 8III/3 — njótr ‘The user’

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.

notes

[3, 4] njótr njarðgjarðar ‘the user of the strength-belt [= Þórr]’: This Þórr-kenning must be understood in relation to the prose of Skm (SnE 1998, I, 24-5), according to which Loki was prevailed upon to make Þórr enter the land of giants without his hammer or belt. Gríðr, a giantess and mother of Óðinn’s son Víðarr, lends him a belt of strength (megingjǫrð) along with iron gloves and a staff. The tmesis njarð-gjarðar is unavoidable here. Mohr (1940, 220-1) suggested the cpd njarðrôð, which he took to mean ‘useful assistance’: gatat njarðrôð gjarðar ‘he had no useful assistance from the belt’. This leaves njótr without a determinant, however. The first element of the cpd, njarð-, is not attested as a simplex, but the cpd njarðláss ‘strong, unbreakable lock’ (LP) confirms that it means ‘power, strength’. Like the name of the god Njǫrðr, njarð- ‘strength’ may derive from Gmc *nerþ- (cf. also the name of the goddess Nerthus; see Tacitus, Germania 1967, 441, 450-1), which is related to OIr. nert- ‘strength’ (AEW: Njǫrðr).

kennings

grammar

case: nom.

Close

Log in

This service is only available to members of the relevant projects, and to purchasers of the skaldic volumes published by Brepols.
This service uses cookies. By logging in you agree to the use of cookies on your browser.

Close

Word in text

This view shows information about an instance of a word in a text.