Þjóð Haustl 9III/7 — girði ‘The girdle’
Sér bað sagna hrœri
sorgœran mey fœra,
þás ellilyf ása,
áttrunnr Hymis, kunni.
Brunnakrs of kom bekkjar
Brísings goða dísi
girðiþjófr í garða
grjót-Níðaðar síðan.
Áttrunnr Hymis bað hrœri sagna, sorgœran, fœra sér mey, þás kunni ellilyf ása. Girðiþjófr Brísings of kom síðan dísi goða í garða grjót-Níðaðar bekkjar Brunnakrs.
The kinsman of Hymir <giant> [GIANT = Þjazi] ordered the leader of the troops [= Loki], pain-crazed, to bring him the girl who knew the old-age medicine of the gods. The girdle-thief of Brísingr [= Loki] afterwards caused the lady of the gods [= Iðunn] to go into the courts of the rock-Níðuðr <legendary tyrant> [GIANT = Þjazi] to the bench of Brunnakr (‘Spring-field’).
notes
[6, 7] girðiþjófr Brísings ‘the girdle-thief of Brísingr [= Loki]’: Loki is here said to be the thief of a certain Brísingr’s girdle. In other contexts, e.g. Þry 13/6, 15/8; Gylf (SnE 2005, 29); Skm (SnE 1998, I, 19, 20, 30); Sǫrla þáttr in Flat (Flat 1860-8, I, 275-6), the pers. n. is pl. Brísinga[r] and the object is referred to as a men ‘necklace, neck-ring’. Brísingr or the Brísingar are otherwise unknown but cf. Brōsinga mene (Beowulf l. 1199) and Note in Beowulf 2008, 193-4. This precious object is said to have been the possession of the goddess Freyja. Sǫrla describes how it was made for Freyja by some dwarfs and stolen from her while she was asleep by Loki in the form of a fly. Some eds (e.g. Skj B) amplify this kenning by adding goða (l. 6), viz. girðiþjófr goða Brísings ‘the girdle-thief of the gods of Brísingr’, but this introduces even greater uncertainty; who are Brísingr’s gods? In this edn, goða is construed with dísi ‘the lady of the gods’ as a kenning for Iðunn.
kennings
- Girðiþjófr Brísings — The girdle-thief of Brísingr [= Loki]