Ólhelg Lv 2I/5 — við ‘tree’
Bǫls, þats lind í landi
landrifs fyr ver handan
golli merkð við galla
grjótǫlnis skal fǫlna.
Þann myndak við vilja
valklifs, meðan lifðak,
— alin erumk bjǫrk at bǫlvi
bands — algrœnan standa.
Bǫls, þats lind landrifs, merkð golli, skal fǫlna í landi fyr handan ver við galla grjótǫlnis. Myndak vilja þann við valklifs standa algrœnan, meðan lifðak; bjǫrk bands erumk alin at bǫlvi.
It is a misery that the linden-tree of the land-rib [STONE (steinn ‘jewel’) > WOMAN = Steinvǫr], distinguished with gold, must grow pale in a land across the sea with the affliction of the stone-mackerel [SNAKE > WINTER]. I would wish that tree of the falcon-cliff [ARM > WOMAN] to stand fully green as long as I lived; the birch of the headband [WOMAN] is born to bring me misery.
notes
[5, 6] við valklifs ‘tree of the falcon-cliff [ARM > WOMAN]’: (a) Finnur Jónsson in Skj B combined the words bjǫrk bands valklifs so as to obtain a woman-kenning ‘birch of the band of the arm’, leaving við ‘tree’ as a half-kenning or uncorrected metaphor for ‘woman’ (presumably discounting the commentary in LaufE). But band ‘(head-)band’ is a standard determinant in woman-kennings in its own right (Meissner 416) without need for the extra determinant valklifs. (b) Kock’s simpler construction (NN §595) is therefore followed here, with valklifs ‘falcon-cliff [ARM]’ defining við ‘tree’ and bands ‘head-band’ defining bjǫrk ‘birch’. As to the first of these kennings, the determinant ‘arm’ or ‘hand’ occurs frequently (Meissner 420) but the base-word við(r) is exceptional. As noted in LaufE (see Context above, and cf. SnE 1998, I, 40), the norm is for m. tree names to serve as base-words in kennings for men and f. ones in kennings for women (for a clear exception see Anon (LaufE) 1/4III). Viðr valklifs is thus one of three women-kennings in the stanza with tree-heiti as base-words (cf. lind ‘linden-tree’ l. 1, bjǫrk ‘birch’ l. 7), and participates in the dominant idea of the pity that the flourishing (algrœnan ‘fully green’, l. 8) girl may grow pale (fǫlna, l. 4) in winter (with another man?).
kennings
- þann við valklifs — that tree of the falcon-cliff [WOMAN]
grammar
case: acc.