Bragi Troll 1III/1 — Skald ‘poet’
Skald kalla mik,
skapsmið Viðurs,
Gauts gjafrǫtuð,
grepp óhneppan,
Yggs ǫlbera,
óðs skap-Móða,
hagsmið bragar.
Hvats skald nema þat?
Kalla mik skald, Viðurs skapsmið, Gauts gjafrǫtuð, óhneppan grepp, Yggs ǫlbera, skap-Móða óðs, hagsmið bragar. Hvats skald nema þat?
They call me poet, smith of Viðurr’s <= Óðinn’s> mind [(lit. ‘Viðurr’s mind-smith’) POETRY > POET], getter of Gautr’s <= Óðinn’s> gift [(lit. ‘Gautr’s gift-getter’) POETRY > POET], unscanty poet, server of Yggr’s <= Óðinn’s> ale [(lit. ‘Yggr’s ale-server’) POETRY > POET], creating-Móði <god> of poetry [POET], skilled smith of poetry [POET]. What’s a poet if not that?
notes
[1] kalla mik skald ‘they call me poet’: The verbal and conceptual structure of Bragi’s stanza mirrors the troll-woman’s. As with l. 1 of her stanza, the interpretation of Bragi’s l. 1 could be kalla mik skald ‘they call me poet’, as here, with the following list of kennings as complement of the object, or skǫld kalla mik ‘poets call me …’. The latter sense requires emendation of all mss’ skald to skǫld, as in Skj B.