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a superscript dot: himin iódẏr. this superscript dot does not designate the
quantity of the vowel; the scribe uses it inconsistently in gKS 2365 4to, for
example, in f. 1r: Nẏi (l. 22), nyraþr (l. 26) and ẏngvi (l. 32).13 the first and
second elements of himinjódýr and himinjódyrr, himinn [sky, heaven] and
jór [horse], do not present a problem. the third element can be understood
as dyrr [doors] or dýr [beast]. the compound jódýr [horse-beast], which can
be read in the line both as singular or plural, has parallels in prose in bjarn-
dýr [bear-beast, for a bear] and perhaps flugdýr [flying-beast, for a bird].14
A literal translation of the two versions of the word would be, respectively,
‘heaven-horse-doors’ and ‘heaven-horse-beasts’, and may be interpreted as
‘doors of the celestial horses’ and ‘celestial horses’.
the first part of the stanza reads ‘Sol varp svnan // sini mana // hendi
ini hǫgri // vm himin iodẏr.’,15 and can be interpreted in at least the fol-
lowing ways:
sól varp sunnan
sinni mána
hendi inni hægri
um himinjódýr.
[the sun, companion of the moon, threw from the south its right
arm around the celestial horses.]
or
sól varp sunnan
sinni mána
hendi inni hægri
um himinjódyr.
13 see Hreinn Benediktsson, Early Icelandic Script: As Illustrated in Vernacular Texts from the
Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries (reykjavík: Manuscript Institute of Iceland, 1965), 50–51,
60–61 and Håndskriftet nr. 2365 4to gl. kgl. sammling på det store Kgl. bibliothek i København:
Codex Regius af den ældre Edda i fototypisk og diplomatisk gengivelse, ed. Ludvig F. A. Wimmer
and finnur Jónsson (Copenhagen: Møller, 1891), xxxi.
14 johan Fritzner, Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog, 3 vols. (oslo: norske forlagsforening
1883–96), with additional vol. 4: finn Hødnebø, Rettelser og tilleg (oslo: universitets-
forlaget, 1972), s.v. bjarndýr and flugdýr.
15 the line breaks are not indicated in the manuscript. All transcriptions of Völuspá from R
are my own but I have adopted the stanza numbers given in neckel and Kuhn’s edition. All
other eddic poems are quoted from neckel and Kuhn’s edition.
sCRIBAL PRACtICes ANd tHRee LINes IN V ö L U S P Á
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