Gripla - 01.01.1998, Page 75

HR0RNARÞQLL
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Konungs skuggsiá. 1945. Utg. Ludvig Holm-Olsen. Norrdne texter nr. 1. Norsk His-
torisk Kjeldeskrift-Institutt, Oslo.
Málsháttakvæði. 1949. Útg. Emst A. Kock. Den norsk-islandska skaldediktningen
11:73-78. Lund.
Norrœn fornkvœði. 1867. Útg. Sophus Bugge. Oslo.
Sólarljóð. 1991. Útg. Njörður P. Njarðvík. Bókmenntafræðistofnun Háskóla fslands
og Menningarsjóður, Reykjavík.
Stefán Karlsson. 1979. Þorp. Gripla 3:115-123.
Qlkofra þáttr. 1950. Austfirðinga sggur. ÍF XI:81-94. Útg. Jón Jóhannesson. Hið
íslenzka fomritafélag, Reykjavík.
SUMMARY
Strophe 50 of Hávamál is essentially a simile, in which a natural feature is compared
to a human condition. The first half of the strophe presents a visual image of a þgll
(fem. ‘a young fir tree’), bereft of its bark and needles, withering away on aþorp (= ‘a
stony hill’?). In the second half, this pathetic picture is likened to a man whom no one
loves. „Why should he live long?“ It seems reasonable to assume that the þgll in the
first half represents a young woman who, like the man in the second half, is not
protected by other people’s love.
A British scholar David A. H. Evans has suggested that the doomed þQll actually
grew among farmhouses but, considering that he ignores the semantic difference
between the ON prepositions á (= ‘on’) and í (= ‘in’), it is not easy to make sense of
his proposal. The Icelandic farm name Þorpar and such expressions as út um þorp og
grundir and út um þorpagrundir serve to support the notion that þorp may have
denoted ‘an open exposed place, where the soil was stony’.
There are only two other strophes in the poem with a similar structure as Hávamál
50. One is strophe 62, depicting an arrogant eagle flying down to the sea in search of
food. Such a bird of prey is compared to a man who comes an assembly where there
is he has no one who is willing to speak up for him. The other example is strophe 78,
contrasting on the one hand the erstwhile well-stocked sheep-folds of the Fitjung’s
sons and on the other the fact that now they have become beggars. Wealth is ficklest
of friends.
Numerous Latin sententiae as well as two strophes in Hugsvinnsmál that are
structured in the same manner as Hávamál 50, 62, and 78 serve to strengthen the
impression that we are ultimately dealing with a stylistic feature that was based on
foreign models.
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