Gripla - 01.01.2003, Page 61

SIX NOTES ON THE INTERPRETATION OF HYMISKVIÐA
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‘When he came close to the place, with his foot he pushed the wood
casing off the spear. Then he aimed the spear at the king and gave him
his death-wound.’
(2) In Orms þáttr Stórólfssonar in Oláfs saga Tryggvasonar in Flateyjarbók I
522: ‘Stórólfr, fifth son of the landnámsmaör Hængr Ketilsson, has a lazy and
obstinate little son, Ormr. As there is a shortage of farm hands, Stórólfr asks
Ormr to mow the meadows. Stórólfr gives him a costly scythe and new blade.
Ormr despises these and ruins them:
Ormr vatt Ijáinn í sundr milli handa sér, en steig í sundr oifit, ok kvað
sér hvárki skyldu.
‘Ormr twisted the scythe-blade in two with his hands and kicked the
scythe-handle to pieces and said neither was of any use to him.’
In both cited examples (1) and (2) steig has an accusative object. In Hymis-
k\’iða 35 the poet uses an acrobatic syntax to express Þórr’s rapid and startling
actions; the verbs in both lines 35/2,3 —fekk á þremi / ok í gegnom steig ...
have as their object hverr, ‘cauldron’, in the last line of the preceding stanza.
The phrase ígegnom ... gólfniðr ísal has an idiomatic parallel in Egils
saga 213: Arinbjgm gave Egill as a jólagjgf a splendid, flowing silk coat, rich-
ly embroidered with gold thread, slœður ... settar fyrir allt gullkngppum í
gegnum niðr, ‘a robe ... omamented in front all the way down with studs of
gold’(cf. Fritzner s.v. gegnum 2). In Hymiskviða, Þórr is going right across the
floor niðr, down from the raised dais (cf. upp á pallana), to the exit, where the
‘nether’ seating, neðra borð, in the hall would be (cf. Privatboligen 198). The
poet’s pleasure in eccentric word-order can be seen in other stanzas also (e.g.
13/5-8, 22/1-4, 24/5-8). There is no need suppose that Þórr’s feet went
through the hall floor, as some suggest; von See 346.