Cookies on our website

We use cookies on this website, mainly to provide a secure browsing experience but also to collect statistics on how the website is used. You can find out more about the cookies we set, the information we store and how we use it on the cookies page.

Continue

skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

Menu Search

Anon Bjark 4III/3 — Fenju ‘Fenja’s’

Gramr inn gjǫflasti         gœddi hirð sína
Fenju forverki,         Fáfnis miðgarði,
Glasis glóbarri,         Grana fagrbyrði,
Draupnis dýrsveita,         dúni Grafvitnis.

Inn gjǫflasti gramr gœddi hirð sína forverki Fenju, miðgarði Fáfnis, glóbarri Glasis, fagrbyrði Grana, dýrsveita Draupnis, dúni Grafvitnis.

The most munificent prince enriched his retinue with Fenja’s <giantess’s> toil [GOLD], Fáfnir’s <dragon’s> land [GOLD], Glasir’s <grove’s> glowing foliage [GOLD], Grani’s <horse’s> fair burden [GOLD], Draupnir’s <mythical ring’s> precious sweat [GOLD], Grafvitnir’s <snake’s> feather-bed [GOLD].

readings

[3] Fenju forverki: ‘[…]’ B, ‘feníu foruerke’ 744ˣ

notes

[3] forverki Fenju ‘with Fenja’s <giantess’s> toil [GOLD]’: Fenja was the name of a giantess who, with her partner Menja, was forced by their master Fróði, a legendary king of Denmark, to grind gold with the magic quern Grotti, according to the poem Grottasǫngr, recorded with a long explanatory prose narrative in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 52-7). Similar gold-kennings are meldr fáglýjaðra þýja Fróða ‘the flour of the little-satisfied bondwomen of Fróði’ (Eyv Lv 8/5, 6, 7I) and þann meldr Fenju ‘that flour of Fenja’ (ESk Øxfl 6/6, 7); see further Meissner 228.

kennings

grammar

Close

Log in

This service is only available to members of the relevant projects, and to purchasers of the skaldic volumes published by Brepols.
This service uses cookies. By logging in you agree to the use of cookies on your browser.

Close

Word in text

This view shows information about an instance of a word in a text.