Bragi Frag 1III/2 — rǫðul ‘disk’
Gefjun dró frá Gylfa
glǫð djúprǫðul ǫðla,
svát af rennirauknum
rauk, Danmarkar auka.
Bôru øxn ok átta
ennitungl, þars gingu
fyr vinjeyjar víðri
valrauf, fjǫgur haufuð.
Gefjun dró frá Gylfa, glǫð, djúprǫðul ǫðla, auka Danmarkar, svát rauk af rennirauknum. Øxn bôru átta ennitungl ok fjǫgur haufuð, þars gingu fyr víðri valrauf vinjeyjar.
Gefjun drew from Gylfi, glad, a deep disk of inherited land [ISLAND = Sjælland], Denmark’s addition [= Sjælland], so that steam rose from the swift-moving draught animals. The oxen bore eight forehead-moons [EYES] and four heads, where they went before the wide plunder-rift of the meadow-island [= Sjælland].
readings
[2] ‑rǫðul: ‑rǫðuls F
notes
[2] djúprǫðul ǫðla ‘a deep disk of inherited land [ISLAND = Sjælland]’: (a) Understood here as a kenning for Gylfi’s patrimony of Swedish land, which Gefjun and her oxen plough away from him to form the island of Sjælland. Djúprǫðull ‘deep disk’ is a hap. leg., the word rǫðull normally denoting the sun or other round heavenly body. Ǫðli, with the sense ‘patrimony, origin’ occurs in two eddic poems, Lok 43/1 and Hárb 9/3. (b) The cpd may also be construed as a f. adj., in apposition to Gefjun, meaning ‘deeply calculating’ or ‘deeply wise’, ‑rǫðull then being related to ráða ‘advise’ (cf. Genzmer 1932; Marold 1983, 83-4). (c) Finnur Jónsson, adopting F’s reading -rǫðuls (gen. sg.), takes glǫð djúprǫðuls to mean glad ved guldet ‘glad at the gold’ (Skj B construing djúprǫðuls as a kenning ‘sun of the deep’ for gold) or ‘shining with gold’ (Finnur Jónsson 1930-1, 251). (d) Another interpretation, proposed by Holtsmark (1944) and followed by Frank (1978, 108-10), argued for ‘wheel’ as the sense of ‑rǫðull, and construed [renniraukn] djúprǫðuls óðla ‘[the swift-moving draught animals] of the deep wheel of the earth [PLOUGH]’ to refer to the deeply penetrating wheel of the heavy plough (as contrasted with the arðr, a simpler, more superficial type of plough), supposedly a technological innovation introduced into Scandinavia c. C9th. Archaeological evidence for such a theory is equivocal at best (cf. Steensberg 1936; Fowler 2002, 182-204, especially 203-4). Ǫðla, gen. sg. of ǫðli, øðli (later eðli) ‘inherited land’, is sometimes emended to the unattested *óðla ‘quickly’ (so Skj B) or the mss’ readings are interpreted as *auðla ‘fruitfully’ (so Skald) or *œðla, understood as lønn for erotisk oppflamming ‘reward for erotic arousal’ (Kiil 1965, 68), the latter alluding to Gefjun’s supposed role as a ritual prostitute in her encounter with Gylfi.
kennings
- djúprǫðul ǫðla, — a deep disk of inherited land, [ISLAND = Sjælland]
grammar
case: acc.