Auðunn Lv 1III/4 — lǫggvar ‘cask-rim’
Maðr skyldi þó, moldar,
megja hverr of þegja,
kenniseiðs þótt kunni
kleppdǫgg Hôars lǫggvar.
Hverr maðr skyldi þó megja of þegja, þótt kunni kleppdǫgg lǫggvar Hôars kenniseiðs moldar.
Yet each man ought to be able to remain silent, even though he knows the lump-dew of Hárr’s <= Óðinn’s> cask-rim [VAT > BAD POETRY] of the testing coalfish of the earth [SNAKE = Ormr (ormr ‘snake’)].
readings
notes
[4] kleppdǫgg lǫggvar Hôars ‘the lump-dew of Hárr’s <= Óðinn’s> cask-rim [VAT > BAD POETRY]’: Editors have found difficulty with this kenning and made various suggestions for its interpretation (cf. SnE 1848-87, III, 137; TGT 1884, 166-7; TGT 1927, 90-1; LP: kleppdǫgg, lǫgg; NN §1006), but, although the lexical elements are unusual, it conforms to standard references to the myth of the mead of poetry as Óðinn’s possession and his alcoholic drink (cf. Meissner 427-30). Lǫgg ‘the rim or ledge at the bottom of a cask or barrel’ or ‘the inside of a cask’ (CVC: lögg; Fritzner: lǫgg; ModIcel. lögg ‘drop left in a bottle’) must be understood as pars pro toto for a vat or cask, in which the mead of poetry is stored. However, the kind of poetry Ormr can produce, Auðunn alleges, is not of a mellifluous, free-flowing type, but rather kleppdǫgg ‘lump-dew’ that can stick to the bottom of the barrel, that is to say, dregs. Auðunn does not use the scatological imagery of kennings like leirr arnar ‘mud of the eagle’ (Arngr Gd 2/7IV; cf. SnE 1998, I, 5), but the effect is similar.
kennings
- lǫggvar Hôars — of Hárr’s <= Óðinn’s> cask-rim [VAT]
- kleppdǫgg lǫggvar Hôars — the lump-dew of Hárr’s <= Óðinn’s> cask-rim [BAD POETRY]
grammar
case: gen.