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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Eskál Vell 36I/1 — Goll ‘The gold’

Gollsendir lætr grundar
— glaðar þengill her drengja —
— hans mæti knák hljóta —
hljót Yggs mjaðar njóta.

Gollsendir lætr hljót grundar njóta mjaðar Yggs; þengill glaðar her drengja; knák hljóta mæti hans.

The gold-distributor [GENEROUS MAN = Einarr, I] lets the recipient of land [RULER] enjoy the mead of Yggr <= Óðinn> [POEM]; the ruler gladdens the host of warriors; I can receive his precious gifts.

readings

[1] Gollsendir lætr: ‘[…]l sendir l[…]tr’ U

notes

[1] gollsendir ‘the gold-distributor [GENEROUS MAN = Einarr, I]’: (a) A kenning designating someone other than a ruler as a ‘generous man’ is unusual in a C10th drápa, but there is a parallel in Jór Send 5/1, where the poet Guthormr sindri is referred to as stríðir hringa ‘enemy of rings [GENEROUS MAN]’. (b) Ohlmarks (1958, 387-8) and Davidson (1983, 396-8), following Kock (NN §410), take a different approach, reading Gollsendir lætr hljót mjaðar Yggs njóta grundar ... ‘The gold-distributor [GENEROUS MAN = Hákon jarl] lets the owner of the mead of Yggr [POEM > POET] enjoy land ...’. However, there is little or no evidence for skalds being rewarded with land.

kennings

grammar

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