Ǫlv Lv 1I/2 — Frigg ‘Frigg’
Lǫgðis hefr of lagða
lauk-Frigg dáin augna
— skjalvald á þar skalda
skíðgarðr — saman hvarma.
Ok bandvaniðr blundar
bekkjar hjǫrtr í rekkju
— því hefk fúr-Gnáar fýris
fjón — golfdáinn sjónum.
Dáin lauk-Frigg lǫgðis hefr of lagða saman hvarma augna; skíðgarðr á þar skjalvald skalda. Ok bandvaniðr golfdáinn hjǫrtr bekkjar blundar sjónum í rekkju; því hefk fjón fýris fúr-Gnáar.
The torpid leek-Frigg <goddess> of the sword [WOMAN] has placed together the lids of [her] eyes; the paling fence there has gossip-authority over [lit. of] the poets. And the ribbon-accustomed floor-sluggish hart of the bench [WOMAN] shuts [her] eyes in bed; therefore I have the hatred of the Gná <goddess> of the pine-fire [(lit. ‘of the fire-Gná of pine’) WOMAN].
readings
[2] ‑Frigg dáin augna: ‘[…]’ Hb, om. 67aˣ, 67bˣ, ‘friöðam augna’ HbFms n. p., ‘fr. dain augna’ HbSnE, Frigg dáin augna HbFJ
notes
[1, 2] dáin lauk-Frigg lǫgðis ‘the torpid leek-Frigg <goddess> of the sword [WOMAN]’: If this is a woman-kenning, as the base-word Frigg and context suggest, it is a somewhat unusual one. There are several issues of concern: (1) the sense of dáin, presumably the p. p. of deyja ‘to die’, used adjectivally, which seems to be echoed by the m. form dáinn in l. 8; (2) whether one should read a cpd lauk-Frigg ‘leek-Frigg’ or laug-Frigg ‘bath/hot spring-Frigg’; and (3) how to understand the determinant lǫgðis, gen. sg. of lǫgðir ‘sword’, which could be expected as part of a warrior-kenning, but not of a kenning for a woman (though see the masculinised woman-kenning bandvaniðr golfdáinn hjǫrtr bekkjar in ll. 5, 6, 8). (1) Dáinn has been understood here in the sense ‘torpid’ rather than ‘dead’, to refer to the slumbering woman, and as ‘sluggish’ in l. 8. (2) Although lauk- rather than laug- has been adopted here because it has the support of earlier eds of Hb and seems to fit the sense of the kenning better, laug- would provide an aðalhending with aug- and may be a preferable reading. (3) It is possible that Ǫlvir has deliberately created aberrant woman-kennings to insult the woman who has humiliated him (as a kind of níð) or that the reference to a sword was a deliberate double entendre. Kock supposed (NN §2210B) that the elements lǫgðis and laukr should be understood together as a cpd sverðlaukr ‘sword-leek’, like geirlaukr ‘garlic’, lit. ‘spear-leek’ and hjalmlaukr, lit. ‘helmet-leek’.
kennings
- Dáin lauk-Frigg lǫgðis — The torpid leek-Frigg <goddess> of the sword [WOMAN]
grammar
case: nom.