Þul Women 2III/7 — kván ‘the wife’
Blíð es mær við móður;
mála drekkr á ekkju;
kvíðir kerling eiðu;
kveðr dóttir vel beðju.
Opt finnr ambátt hǫptu;
æ ’r frilla grǫm sværu;
kiljar kván ok elja;
kann nipt við snør skipta.
Mær es blíð við móður; mála drekkr á ekkju; kerling kvíðir eiðu; dóttir kveðr vel beðju. Ambátt finnr opt hǫptu; frilla [e]r æ grǫm sværu; kván ok elja kiljar; nipt kann skipta við snør.
The maiden is friendly towards her mother; a confidante drinks to a widow; an old woman worries about her mother; the daughter welcomes her bedfellow. The handmaid often visits the bondwoman; a mistress is forever angry with the mother-in-law; the wife and the concubine quarrel; the sister can deal with the daughter-in-law.
readings
[7] kván ok elja: kvæn við elju U
notes
[7] kván ok elja kiljar ‘the wife and the concubine quarrel’: For the sg. kiljar (‘lit. quarrels’) with a pl. subject, see Note to st. 1/1, 2. The verb kilja (kilja við e-n ‘quarrel with sby’ in U) does not occur elsewhere in Old Norse and its sense is controversial. According to CVC, kilja means ‘fondle’, while LP: kilja 1, Fritzner: kilja and ÍO: kilja 2 assume the opposite sense, ‘quarrel, abuse’ (see also the discussion of the noun kilja in Note to ÞjóðA Lv 6/5, 6II). Presumably, the latter sense better suits the two heiti for ‘women’ mentioned in this line, kván f. (also kvæn (U)), the poetic term for ‘wedded wife’, which is never used in the general sense ‘woman’, and its opposite, elja f. ‘concubine’. Elja is derived either from ella adv. ‘otherwise’ or from eljan f./n. or eljun f. (variant forms) ‘endurance, energy, jealousy’ (see CVC: elja; AEW: elja). Skm (SnE 1998, I, 108) provides the following definition of this word: Þær konur heita eljur er einn mann eigu ‘Those women are called eljur who are wives of the same man’. See also the kenning for the goddess Jǫrð, ÞjóðA Sex 3/3II elja Rindar ‘rival of Rindr <giantess>’ (both Jǫrð and Rindr were concubines of the god Óðinn in Old Norse myth).