Bragi Frag 3III/3 — of ‘above’
Vel hafið yðrum eykjum
aptr, Þrívalda, haldit
simbli sumbls of mærum,
sundrkljúfr níu hǫfða.
Hafið vel haldit aptr eykjum yðrum, sundrkljúfr níu hǫfða Þrívalda, of mærum simbli sumbls.
You have well driven back your draught animals, cleaver asunder of the nine heads of Þrívaldi <giant> [= Þórr], above the famous drink-provider of the drinking party [= Ægir (ægir ‘ocean’)].
notes
[3] of mærum simbli sumbls ‘above the famous drink-provider of the drinking party [= Ægir (ægir ‘ocean’)]’: This presumed kenning presents a major difficulty of interpretation, in that the word simbli, regarded here as the dat. sg. of a m. agent noun *simblir, is a hap. leg. Most eds have assumed that the phrase of mærum simbli sumbls is a giant-kenning of some kind (so LP: simblir), though its referent is unclear (Skj B treats the phrase as incomprehensible). Kock (NN §220 and cf. §160) took the view that Þrívalda is dat., not gen., and that mærum qualifies Þrívalda. He emended ms. simbli to simbla, which he presented as a form of an adv. simla ‘always’ and then understood the phrase to mean ‘always famous for his drinking’. Faulkes (SnE 1998, II, 386: simblir; cf. Magnús Finnbogason 1952, 345 n.) understands simblir to mean ‘drinker (?)’ (formed from sumbl; see SnE 1998, I, 165). He interprets simblir sumbls as an ofljóst kenning for the giant Þrymr, whose name, as a common noun, means ‘crash, noise’, so ‘thunder’, so ‘you … held back your steeds with notorious giant-feast drinker [= Þrymr (þrymr ‘noise, thunder’)]’. Faulkes notes (SnE 1998, I, 165) that the word sumbl ‘drinking feast, beer’ may suggest a connection with the mead of poetry, although he concedes that Þórr is not normally associated with that. On the other hand, a frequent association of the word sumbl, especially in the Poetic Edda, is with the ale-feast and brewing of ale that the gods compelled the sea-giant Ægir to prepare for them (cf. Hym 1/3, 2/8, Lok prose introduction and 7/5, 8/6, as well as the frame-narrative of Skm). It is therefore possible that the obscure giant-kenning of l. 3 may involve the sea-giant Ægir (simblir sumbls ‘drink-provider of the drinking party’), whose name as a common noun means ‘ocean’. This is the interpretation adopted here. The helmingr as a whole would then indicate that Þórr has successfully driven back to Ásgarðr from some adventure ‘above the ocean’, i.e. travelling in his goat-drawn chariot through the air, as was his wont. Marold (1988, 46-7) understands a reference to Hymir rather than Ægir in the kenning simblir sumbls, which she interprets as ‘giant of the gods’ drink’, understanding simblir ‘giant’ as related to the heiti simull ‘bull’ (Þul Øxna 2/4). She would then see the Fragment as alluding to Þórr’s and Týr’s winning of the gods’ brewing cauldron from the giant Hymir, as narrated in Hym.