Anon Sól 76VII/3 — stóli ‘stool’
Bjúgvör ok Listvör sitja í Herðis dyrum
organs stóli á;
járnadreyri fellr ór nösum þeim;
sá vekr fjón með firum.
Bjúgvör ok Listvör sitja á organs stóli í Herðis dyrum; járnadreyri fellr ór nösum þeim; sá vekr fjón með firum.
Bjúgvör and Listvör sit on an organ stool in Herðir’s doorway; iron blood falls from their nostrils; that awakens hatred among men.
notes
[3] á organs stóli ‘on an organ stool’: Why this quintessentially Christian instrument should be associated with the troll-like females is not at all clear; Björn M. Ólsen (1915, 61) suggests the function of the music is to attract men to sin, like the Sirens of the Odyssey. Paasche (1914a, 158) notes a parallel with Eggþér in Vsp 42, whose harp-playing signals the onset of ragna rök ‘the doom of the gods’. Fidjestøl (1979, 57) compares an OSwed. proverb, wärldslik qwinna är diäfwulsins orgha ‘worldly women are the devil’s organ’, but here the devil plays upon the women, rather than the women playing the instrument.