Gripla - 20.12.2018, Síða 139

139
Þó RHALLUR EYÞóRSSON
ALDRNARI
1. Introduction
the word aldrnari occurs once in Völuspá, in stanza 54:1
Sól tér sortna,
sígr fold í mar,
hverfa af himni
heiðar stjörnur;
geisar eimi
við aldrnara,
leikr hár hiti
við himin sjálfan.
Codex regius (GKS 2365 4to, ca. 1275–1300) has the reading viþ aldr nara,
while the variant ok aldrnari occurs in Hauksbók and the manuscripts of
Snorra-Edda.2 In addition, the word is recorded once in the þulur verses
1 The text is from Eddukvæði, ed. by Jónas Kristjánsson and Vésteinn Ólason (reykjavík:
Hið Íslenzka fornritafélag, 2014), vol. 1, 305–6. the numbering of the stanza varies in
different editions. for example, in Edda Sæmundar hinns fróda: Edda rhythmica seu antiqvior,
vulgo Sæmundina dicta, ed. by Guðmundur Magnússon, Jón Jónsson, Jón ólafsson úr
Svefneyjum, Finnur Magnússon, and Gunnar Pálsson (Copenhagen: Sumtibus Legati
Magnæani et Gyldendalii, 1787–1848, vol. 2, 1828), the stanza is no. 51 (Vid aldvrnára). In
Norræn fornkvæði: Islandsk samling af folkelige oldtidsdigte om Nordens guder og heroer, alminde-
lig kaldet Sæmundar Edda hins fróða, ed. by Sophus Bugge (Christiania: P. t. Malling, 1867),
Edda. Die Lieder des Codex Regius samt verwandten Denkmälern, ed. by Hans Kuhn, 4th ed.
(Heidelberg: Winter, 1962), and Eddadigte, ed. by Jón Helgason. 2nd/3rd ed. (Copenhagen,
1955–59), it is no. 57. In Edda Sæmundar hinns fróda: Collectio carminum veterum scaldorum
Sæmundiana dicta, ed. by rasmus Christian rask (Stockholm: typis Elmenianis, 1818),
and in Die Lieder der Edda, ed. by Barend Sijmons and Hugo Gering (Halle: Waisenhaus,
1888), it is no. 58. Finally, in Eddukvæði, ed. by Gísli Sigurðsson (reykjavík: Mál og menn-
ing, 1998), and Eddukvæði, ed. by Jónas Kristjánsson and Vésteinn ólason, it is no. 55. I
have chosen to follow the numbering (54) in The Poetic Edda II: Mythological Poems, ed. by
ursula Dronke (oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997), 22.
2 Hauksbók (aM 544 4to, ca. 1300–25) has ok alldrnari. the manuscripts of Snorra-Edda
comprise Codex regius (GKS 2367 4to, ca. 1300–50), Codex upsaliensis (DG 11 8vo, ca.
Gripla XXIX (2018): 139–166