Eil Þdr 20III/6 — karms ‘of the wagon-cab’
Glaums niðjum fór gǫrva
gramr með dreyrgum hamri;
of salvanið Synjar
sigr hlaut arinbrautar.
Kom at tvíviðar tívi,
tollurr karms þás harmi,
-brautar liðs, of beitti,
bekk- fall, jǫtuns rekka.
Gramr með dreyrgum hamri fór gǫrva niðjum Glaums; hlaut sigr of salvanið Synjar arinbrautar. Fall liðs bekkbrautar kom at tívi tvíviðar, þás tollurr karms of beitti rekka jǫtuns harmi.
The ruler with the bloody hammer [= Þórr] totally destroyed the descendants of Glaumr <giant> [GIANTS]; [he] gained victory over the hall-visitor of the Syn <goddess> of the hearth-stone-path [MOUNTAINS > GIANTESS > GIANT]. The fall of the retinue of the bench-road [HOUSE] came at the god of the bow [WARRIOR = Geirrøðr], when the pole of the wagon-cab [CHARIOTEER = Þórr] inflicted violence on the warriors of the giant.
notes
[6] tollurr karms ‘the pole of the wagon-cab [CHARIOTEER = Þórr]’: Because tollurr is the subject of the subordinate clause, tollur (all mss) has been emended to tollurr. Tollurr is usually interpreted either as an unknown tree-name or as a word for ‘stick’; cf. ModSwed. tolle ‘shoot, scion’, MLG toll ‘twig’ (AEW: tollurr). Here it functions as the base-word in a man-kenning. Karmr has several meanings: ‘frame’, ‘vessel’, ‘container’ or ‘parapet’. There is only one certain attestation of karmr in the sense ‘wagon, cart’ (see ONP: karmr); cf. also ModNorw. karm ‘sides of a wagon-cab’ or ‘back rest on a sled’. Hence karmr could refer to a part of a wagon, and it is taken here as pars pro toto for ‘wagon’. The wagon excavated in Oseberg has a removable cab or container, and such a wagon is also depicted on the tapestry found there. Moreover, the C10th wagon-boxes found in Denmark and Sweden, which were used as coffins, are of the same shape as the Oseberg wagon (Eisenschmidt 2006, 73-8). The whole kenning means ‘charioteer’, then; this unambiguously points to the god Þórr and his attribute, the wagon pulled by two goats.
kennings
- tollurr karms — the pole of the wagon-cab [CHARIOTEER = Þórr]