Gripla - 20.12.2018, Side 142

GRIPLA142
Eim lék hyrr með himni,
hljóp eldr í sal feldan…7
[fire played on fire against the sky; the flame leaped into the col-
lapsed hall...]
Here the word hyrr is taken to mean ‘fire’, and the phrase eim lék hyrr (or
rather hyrr lék eim, given the most usual word order in old Icelandic prose)
can be paraphrased as ignis igni adludebat, according to Sveinbjörn ‘fire
was playing against fire’.8 As an interesting aside, it may be mentioned
that Sveinbjörn also adduces words from Semitic languages (arabic and
aramaic) which he seems to have thought important for illuminating the
word’s origin. While these associations attest to considerable learning on
his part, they must be regarded as far-fetched.
In the revised editions of the Lexicon poeticum, Finnur Jónsson reiter-
ates Sveinbjörn’s opinion, maintaining that aldrnari means ‘fire’.9 Finnur
also cites a famous stanza in Hávamál, presumably to emphasize the
importance of fire as the basis of life, just like Sveinbjörn did in his inter-
pretation ‘the one who nourishes life’. In Hávamál the importance of fire
is especially noted in two places, in stanza 3 and in stanza 68.10 For some
reason, finnur refers only to the latter, but here the relevant parts of both
stanzas are given (English translation by Dronke):
Elds er þǫrf,
þeims inn er kominn
ok á kné kalinn... (Háv. 3)
Eldr er beztr
með ýta sonum
ok sólar sýn... (Háv. 68)
7 Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. A. Tekst efter håndskrifterne. B. Rettet tekst, vol. BII, 132.
Cf. also for the text and English translation, “Sturla Þórðarson, Hákonarflokkr,” Poetry
from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages
vol. 2, ed. by Kari Ellen Gade (turnhout: Brepols, 2009), 748–9.
8 Note the similar English translation by Gade, Ibid.
9 Sveinbjörn Egilsson, Lexicon poeticum antiquae linguae septentrionalis, new ed. with additions
by finnur Jónsson (Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, 1913–16); Sveinbjörn Egilsson, Lexicon
poeticum antiquae linguae septentrionalis, 2nd ed. with corrections by finnur Jónsson
(Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, 1931).
10 The Poetic Edda III: Mythological Poems II, ed. by ursula Dronke (oxford: oxford uni-
versity Press, 2011), 3, 15; Eddukvæði, ed. by Jónas Kristjánsson and Vésteinn ólason, vol.
1, 322, 335.