Eyv Lv 4I/5 — spenni ‘grasper’
Baðat valgrindar vinda
veðrheyjandi Skreyju
gumnum hollr né golli
Gefnar sinni stefnu:
‘Ef søkkspenni svinnan,
sigrminnigr, vilt finna,
framm halt, njótr, at nýtum
Norðmanna gram, hranna.’
Valgrindar Gefnar veðrheyjandi, hollr gumnum né golli, baðat Skreyju vinda stefnu sinni: ‘Ef, sigrminnigr, vilt finna svinnan søkkspenni, halt framm at nýtum gram Norðmanna, njótr hranna.’
The enacter of the storm of the Gefn <= Freyja> of the slaughter-gate [(lit. ‘storm-enacter of the Gefn of the slaughter-gate’) SHIELD > VALKYRIE > BATTLE > WARRIOR = Hákon], loyal to men, not to gold, did not bid [Eyvindr] Skreyja (‘Wretch’) to alter his course: ‘If, mindful of victory, you wish to meet a wise treasure-grasper [RULER], keep straight ahead to the capable king of the Norwegians [= Hákon], user of the waves [SWIMMER = Eyvindr skreyja].’
readings
[5] ‑spenni: ‑kenni F, spennir FskBˣ, rýri FskAˣ
notes
[5] -spenni ‘-grasper’: In order to explain this agentive (NN §1057B; ÍF 26; LP: auðspennir), eds have assumed a sense of ‘destroy’ for the verb spenna. But occurrences in the senses of ‘consume, use up, waste’ (hence possibly ‘destroy’) are restricted to a few late attestations in homiletic contexts (Fritzner: II. spenna 2) and appear to represent a development from OE (ā)spendan ‘spend, consume, exhaust’ or other WGmc derivatives of Lat. expendere ‘to spend’ (cf. AEW: spenna 4). Meanwhile, spenna as used in skaldic kennings is most probably from an entirely different etymon (< Gmc *spannian), with a sense of ‘cause to span, embrace, encompass’. From the large mass of attestations it is clear that the semantic range of this spenna covers the concepts ‘clasp, span, enclose, embrace, grasp, catch, gain’ (CVC: spenna; Fritzner: I. spenna; AEW: spenna 2). The basis for the kenning is therefore probably that the successful warlord and his following grasp or seize valuable items, e.g. weapons, from the opposing forces as plunder (cf. Gsind Hákdr 4/3, Anon Liðs 3/7, Sigv Nesv 10/1-4; Price 2000a). — [5] søkkspenni ‘treasure-grasper [RULER]’: The multiplicity of variants has left room for widely varying construals of the kenning, and the sense of -spenni is disputed given that kennings more often denote men as ‘treasure-destroyers’ (i.e. extravagant givers) than as treasure-graspers. (a) Adopted in this edn is Kock’s interpretation of the reading of Kˣ as søkkspenni (NN §§1057, 1783, followed in ÍF 26, Hkr 1991). On the word søkk, see Note to Eyv Hál 1/10. (b) In Hkr 1893-1901, IV, Finnur Jónsson read svipkenni Njóts (emended from mss njótr) and interpreted it as ‘trier of the uproar of Njótr <= Óðinn> [BATTLE > WARRIOR]’. (c) Subsequently (Skj B) Finnur opted for the reading sólspenni and combined it with ranna and Njóts to obtain a kenning which in Skj B he merely translates kriger ‘warrior’, but which he explains in LP, taking Njótr as a name of Óðinn, his rǫnn ‘halls’ as ‘shields’, their sól ‘sun’ as ‘sword’ and its spennir ‘encircler, grasper’ as ‘warrior’ (LP: njótr 2, rann, sólspennir). (d) Reichardt (1928, 32-3) rejected both of these interpretations, adopting ‘sꜹckspenni’, the (diplomatic) reading of Kˣ, and construing it as a kenning sǫkspennir ‘encompasser of battle’, i.e. ‘warrior’. He also rejected the emendation of njótr (see Note to ll. 7-8 below). However, the Kˣ spelling implies <kk>, not <k>. (e) Bjarni Einarsson (ÍF 29), evidently attempting to account for the Fsk readings as they stand, opts for sólspenni ‘sun-destroyer’ and assumes that the other determinants of the kenning have been effaced in transmission. Kock’s solution is preferable to all these, in terms of conformity to recognised kenning types and ability to account for both the spelling with geminated consonant in Kˣ and the full range of variants in other mss.
kennings
- svinnan søkkspenni, — a wise treasure-grasper, [RULER]
grammar
case: acc.