OBarr Frag 1III/1 — Draupnis ‘of Draupnir’
Hvégis, Draupnis drógar
dís — ramman spyrk vísa —
(sá ræðr) valdr (fyr veldi)
vagnbrautar mér fagnar.
Hvégis valdr vagnbrautar fagnar mér, dís drógar Draupnis; spyrk vísa ramman; sá ræðr fyr veldi.
In whatever way the ruler of the wagon-road [SKY/HEAVEN > = God] welcomes me, dís <minor female deity> of the drawing of Draupnir <mythical ring> [GOLD > WOMAN]; I hear the lord is powerful; he rules over the realm.
readings
[1] Draupnis: ‘dro᷎pniss’ B
notes
[All]: It is also possible to construe the helmingr’s syntax in several different ways; cf. Skj B for the above interpretation. Kock (NN §427) construes with two parallel clauses, ramman spyrk vísa ‘I hear the lord is powerful’ (l. 2) and sá valdr ræðr fyr veldi vagnbrautar ‘that ruler rules over the realm of the wagon-road’ (ll. 3-4). — [All]: The main subject of Ormr’s poem is unknown. The poet seems to be speculating about the welcome he anticipates receiving in heaven. If Ormr came from the Hebrides, where much of the population was Christian well before Christianity came to Norway and Iceland, it is likely that the referent of the kenning in ll. 3-4 is the Christian God, rather than Óðinn. Skj B is undecided, while Faulkes (SnE 1998, I, 180) suggests the helmingr may be about Óðinn ‘and perhaps refers to the poet’s reception in Valhǫll or heaven’. — [1] drógar Draupnis ‘of the drawing of Draupnir <mythical ring> [GOLD]’: The noun dróg occurs only here as a simplex and in the compounds almdróg (Gsind Hákdr 71I) and ýdróg (Hfr Óldr 6/5I), both meaning ‘bow-string’. The noun plausibly derives from the verb draga ‘draw, pull’ and means ‘that which is drawn’. It has been understood here (cf. LP: dróg) to mean ‘the drawing, i.e. that which is drawn’ from Draupnir, that is, gold. Draupnir (lit. ‘dripper’) was Óðinn’s gold arm-ring, which had been forged for him by some dwarfs. According to Gylf (SnE 2005, 47) it had the property that every ninth night there dripped from it eight gold rings of the same weight. An alternative interpretation is that dróg could mean ‘band, string’, as in the two compounds above; this would then form the base-word of a ring-kenning. Kock (NN §1895) proposed for dróg the meaning ‘that on which something is drawn’, and understood dróg Draupnis as a kenning for the arm (cf. Meissner 419-20).
kennings
- drógar Draupnis; — of the drawing of Draupnir <mythical ring>; [GOLD]
- dís drógar Draupnis; — dís <minor female deity> of the drawing of Draupnir <mythical ring>; [WOMAN]