84
Text, Commentary, and Approximate
Translation
Wÿsúr úppa̋ Laxdæla Sógú . T. F. S .
1.
Aúþr var Erleg trőþa,
ÿtte múnd Rÿnar Súnda,
Heiþúrs verþ ha̋rra búrþa,
her=Jófúrs drottning gófúg,
űrræþa Snór i Snerru,
Snűdúg trőd vegú űdar,
treiſte kla̋r húgúd chriſto,
a̋ Kroſs hőlū baþ Gram Ső
-la7.
1.
Auðr var
ørlyg-tróða,
ýtti mund Rínar-sunda,
heiðrs-verð hárra burða,
her-jǫfurs drottning gǫfug,
órræða-sn
or í snerru,
snúðug tróð
veig-úða,
treysti klár-huguð Kristo,
á Krosshólum bað gram sólar.
Regular word order
Auðr var ørlyg-tróða. [Auðr] ýtti Rínar-sunda
mund. [Auðr var] heiðrs-verð. [Auðr var] her-
jǫfurs drottning gǫfug hárra burða. [Auðr var]
órræða-snor í snerru. [Auðr var] snúðug tróð
veig-úða. Klár-huguð [Auðr] treysti Christo.
[Auðr] bað sólar gram á Krosshólum.
Approximate English translation
Auðr [the Deep-minded] was an exceptional
woman,
[she] distributed the money of Rhinewater [→
GOLD
],
a very honourable [woman] of high birth,
a famous queenly wife of a boar of an army [→
PRINCE
],
a woman who
knew how to solve difficult
problems,
the agile water’s fire’s [→
GOLD
’
S
] faggot [→
WOMAN
],
clear-minded,
believed in Christ,
[she] prayed to the Prince of the Sun [→ C
HRIST
]
at Krosshólar.
Commentary
(1.1)
ørlyg-tróða – tróða [n.fem.nom.sg.
‘faggot, bundle of sticks’], because of
meaning and gender, acts as a baseword for
kennings for
WOMAN
(
LP: 572), in a mirror
image of masculine nouns with the core
meaning of
WOOD
/
TREE
that are commonly
used as basewords for kennings for
MAN
/
WARRIOR
. In this case
ørlyg- [bare
stem of
ørlyg/
ǫrlǫg n.neut.pl. ‘fate;
exploits, war’] could be interpreted as a
heiti for
BATTLE
or
SHIELD
(
LP: 667), which
would correspond to a nonce kenning-
model for
WOMAN
coined as part mirror
image, part carbon copy of a kenning for
MAN
/
WARRIOR
in the following way: the
determinants are identical to a kenning for
MAN
/
WARRIOR
,
the basewords are feminine-
gender ‘
TREE
’-words (see above). This is an
expansion of the opportunity partially
exploited by the classical kenning system,
where feminine-gender ‘
TREE
’-words are
used to coin kennings for
WOMAN
, but, of
the determinants common for kennings for
MAN
/
WARRIOR
, only those for
GOLD
are
used (Meissner 1921: 413‒420; Sverdlov
2015).
However, this is an emendation, and
there is an opportunity not to emend the
manuscript’s
erleg. The adjective
erlegur
[adj.masc. ‘proper, honest, upright’] was
current in 18
th
-century Icelandic (today’s
form is
ærlegur) but is not attested in ON;
tróða should here be regarded as a heiti for
WOMAN
.
(1.2)
ýtti mund Rínar-sunda – ýtti [v.3.sg.pret.
ind. of
ýta ‘to push out’];
mund [n.masc.
acc.sg. of
mundr ‘bride-price’, i.e. a sum
supplied by the groom in a marriage
contract that becomes the exclusive
property of the bride];
Rínar-sunda ‘water
of the Rhine’ (
Rínar [n.fem.gen.sg. of
Rín
‘Rhine’],
sunda [n.neut.gen.pl. of
sund
‘sound, strait, channel’]). If
mundr is read
as a heiti for
TREASURE
, ‘treasure of the
Rhine’ is a conventional kenning for
GOLD
.
The sequence can be read (Auðr)
ýtti mund
Rínar-sunda
[‘distributed
GOLD
’],
characterizing Auðr by the classic Old
Germanic
kingly/princely
activity
of
distributing gold to retainers and thus
identifying her with that role, a role to
which her position as a
landnámsmaðr
[‘prime settler’; lit. ‘land-claim-man’] in
Iceland can be seen as equivalent.
Syntactically, this phrase could be modelled
on a common classical
dróttkvætt pattern
for an extended kenning in which a
nomen
agentis baseword
has been expanded to full