Þjóð Haustl 11III/1 — hræva ‘of corpses’
unz hrynsævar hræva
hund ǫl-Gefnar fundu
leiðiþír ok læva
lund ǫl-Gefnar bundu.
‘Þú skalt véltr, nema vélum,’
— vreiðr mælir svá — ‘leiðir
munstœrandi mæra
mey aptr, Loki, hapta.’
unz fundu hund hrynsævar hræva ǫl-Gefnar ok bundu leiðiþír ǫl-Gefnar, lund læva. ‘Þú skalt véltr, Loki,’ – vreiðr mælir svá – ‘nema leiðir aptr vélum mæra mey, munstœrandi hapta.’
until they found the hound of the roaring sea of corpses [BLOOD > WOLF] of the ale-Gefn <= Freyja> [WOMAN = Iðunn > = Loki] and bound the leading slave of ale-Gefn <= Freyja> [WOMAN = Iðunn > = Loki], the tree of deceits [MAN = Loki]. ‘You shall be harshly dealt with, Loki,’ – the angry one speaks thus – ‘unless you bring back by strategems the glorious girl, joy-increaser of the divine powers [= Iðunn].’
notes
[1-2] hund hrynsævar hræva ǫl-Gefnar ‘the hound of the roaring sea of corpses [BLOOD > WOLF] of the ale-Gefn <= Freyja> [WOMAN = Iðunn > = Loki]’: An extended kenning in which, unusually, the base-word is in itself a kenning. The referent of this, ‘wolf’, is required in order to understand how the final referent, here judged to be Loki, derives from the determinant ‘[WOMAN = Iðunn]’. ‘Wolf’ is to be understood metaphorically in the sense ‘abductor, thief’. Some scholars (e.g. Holtsmark 1949, 32-3) consider the final referent to be ‘[GIANT = Þjazi]’ (cf. st. 2/2 ulfr snótar ‘the wolf of the woman’, st. 4/1 fjallgylðir ‘mountain wolf’), and this is a possible reading, both syntactically and on grounds of kenning-pattern. However, it does not conform to the mythic narrative as we know it from SnE, because there the gods are not said to find Þjazi before they seize Loki and threaten him with death or torture.
kennings
- hrynsævar hræva — of the roaring sea of corpses [BLOOD]
- hund hrynsævar hræva — the hound of the roaring sea of corpses [WOLF]
- hund hrynsævar hræva ǫl-Gefnar — the hound of the roaring sea of corpses of the ale-Gefn <= Freyja> [= Loki]