ÚlfrU Húsdr 6III/6 — vaðs ‘of the ford’
Fullǫflugr lét fellir
fjall-Gauts hnefa skjalla
— ramt mein vas þat — reyni
reyrar leggs við eyra.
Víðgymnir laust Vimrar
vaðs af frônum naðri
hlusta grunn við hrǫnnum.
Hlaut innan svá minnum.
Fullǫflugr fellir fjall-Gauts lét hnefa skjalla við eyra reyni leggs reyrar; þat vas ramt mein. Víðgymnir vaðs Vimrar laust grunn hlusta af frônum naðri við hrǫnnum. Hlaut svá innan minnum.
The most powerful killer of the mountain-Gautr <man of the Gautar> [GIANT > = Þórr] let his fist slam against the ear of the tester of the bone of the reed [STONE > GIANT]; that was a mighty injury. The Víðgymnir <giant> of the ford of Vimur <river> [= Þórr] struck the ground of the ears [HEAD] off the gleaming serpent near the waves. Thus [the hall] received [decoration] inside with memorable pictures.
notes
[5, 6] Víðgymnir vaðs Vimrar ‘the Víðgymnir <giant> of the ford of Vimur <river> [= Þórr]’: This kenning alludes to an episode described in Eil Þdr sts 5-8 and in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 24-5). On his way to meet the giant Geirrøðr, Þórr must wade across a mighty river. Þdr 8 does not call it the Vimur, rather, the name comes from a stanza of an otherwise unknown eddic poem cited in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 25). The prose narrative and the stanza might also explain why the poet uses a giant’s name as the base-word in this Þórr-kenning. The river swells up until it reaches Þórr’s shoulders, at which point he addresses the river (loc. cit.): Vaxattu nú, Vimur, | … veiztu ef þú vex, | at þá vex mér ásmegin | jafnhátt upp sem himinn ‘Do not grow now, Vimur, … you know that if you grow, then the power of an Áss will rise in me just as high as the sky’. At the same time the kenning, in which Þórr appears as the ‘giant’ of the river, corresponds to the kenning pattern ‘hostile creature/enemy of sth./sby’. There is no satisfactory explanation for the name Víðgymnir, but the prose context of the Húsdr stanza indicates it is a giant’s name (SnE 1998, I, 17): Hér er hann kallaðr jǫtunn Vimrar vaðs ‘Here he is called the giant of the ford of the Vimur’. Sveinbjörn Egilsson (LP (1860): Viðgymnir) explains the word as the appellative transgressor ‘one who crosses’; cf. also SnE 1848-87, I, 258; LP: Víðgymnir.
kennings
- Víðgymnir vaðs Vimrar — The Víðgymnir <giant> of the ford of Vimur <river> [= Þórr]