Hope someone finds a point or two of interest among
the below musings and quotes from various Edda manuscripts.
"There is a lake called Ámsvartnir, and an islet
called Lyngvi, and Siglitnir, a hillock on the islet.
Þvitir is the name of a peg that is situated on the
hillock, and the hole is called Gnjöll that is
drilled through the peg. Hræða is the name of the
fetter with which the Fenrisúlfr is tied and it is
put through the hole, and Gelgja is the name of the
stick that is shoved in at the front. The name of the
fetter that holds him down is Gleipnir. In the
beginning two fetters were made, Drómi and Læðingr,
but neither held. Then Gleipnir was fashioned of six
things, the sound of a cat's footfall, a woman's
beard, a fish's breath, and a bird's milk, roots of
a mountain, and a bear's sinews; Gleipnir was made
of these things, and the reason why none of them
exists since then is that they were entirely used up.
Two rivers fall from the wolf's mouth, one called Ván
and the other Víl, and therefore it is right to call
waters his saliva. And Gjölnar is the name of his
whiskers."
This passage, from variant versions of Skáldskaparmál,
is rarely seen in print, as it is not found in the
Codex Regius ("R" - dated ca. 1300) of Snorri's Edda. It is,
however, quite authentic, as it is found in two of the
very oldest mss. of the Prose Edda, i.e. AM 748 ("A" - dated
ca. 1300) and AM 757 ("B" - dated ca 1400). The translation
was "borrowed" from p. 228 of Guðrún Nordal's wonderful TOOLS
OF LITERACY (University of Toronto Press, 2000, ISBN
0802047890 - highly recommended). Here's the same text
in the original for those who would like to try their hand
at the Old Icelandic (I am relying on Haukur to correct my
spelling mistakes):
"Ámsvartnir heitir vatn, en Lyngvi hólmr í vatninu, en
Siglitnir hóll í hólminum. En Þviti heitir hæll er stendr
í hólinum, en Gnjöll heitir rauf er borut er á hælinum,
en Hræða heitir festr er Fenrisúlfr er bundinn með ok er
henni drepit í gegnum raufina, en Gelgja spýta er fyrir
er stungit. Fjöturrinn heitir Gleipnir er honum heldr.
Gervir váru tveir fjötrar til hans fyrst, þeir Drómi ok
Læðingr, ok helt hvárrgi. Þá var Gleipnir síðan görr ór
sex hlutum:
Ór kattar dyn
ok ór konu skeggi,
ór fisks anda
ok ór fugla mjólk,
ór bergs rótum
ok ór bjarnar sinum;
ór því var hann Gleipnir görr.
Því er þat ekki eptir síðan at þat var þá allt til haft.
Ár tvær falla ór munni honum, heitir önnur Ván, en önnur
Víl, ok er því rétt at kalla vötn hráka hans. En Gjölnar
heita granar hans."
Interesting? Yes, actually. There are various old manuscripts
in existence, containing some pretty intriguing stuff, both
"lore"-related and otherwise, but unfortunately the texts of
these manuscripts are generally only accessible in the original
language, and often in editions which can only be found with
difficulty in specialized libraries. I wonder how many of you
are familiar with the following fragment of a stanza, which is
quite possibly from a "lost" Eddaic poem (pull out your grammars):
Flugu hrafnar tveir
af Hnikars öxlum,
Huginn til hanga,
en á hræ Muninn.
Familiar? Hardly. This fragment has only been preserved in the
so-called "Third Grammatical Treatise", a lengthy treatise on
poetics, which is found bound with Snorri's Edda in one of the
primary manuscripts, the Codex Wormianus ("W"), which, among other
things, contains a recension of Skáldskaparmál which differs
substantially from the one we all know, i.e. the one from the Codex
Regius. This "grammatical" treatise is know to have been written by
Óláfr Þórðarson hvítaskáld ("white-poet"), who was Snorri's nephew,
and is practically a companion piece to Skáldskaparmál, which it
follows in the manuscript. Óláfr's treatise is also found in the "A"
manuscript (mentioned above), and contains over 100 quotes from
skaldic and eddaic poetry, many of which are found nowhere else,
like the one quoted above.
Among "apocryphal" Eddaic material found outside of the Codex
Regius manuscript, are dozens of "nafnaþulur" (name-verses) in
addition to those found in the most commonly circulated version
of Skáldskaparmál. One of these is the intriguing "þula" of Óðinn's
names, which is hardly ever seen in print these days. I can't
resist printing the whole thing here, as I'm sure many will be
interested. I hardly need mention that some of the names may be
spurious. The text is taken from Finnur Jónsson's "Skjaldedignting",
Vol B.I - where the complete additional "þulur" are found on pp.
671-680:
Óðins nöfn
1. Nú skal yppa
Óðins nöfnum:
Atríðr, Auðun
ok Aldaföðr,
Gizurr, Kjalarr,
Gautr, Viðrímnir,
Gollorr, Grímnir,
Ginnarr, Hnikuðr.
5. Hroptr, Herblindi
ok Herjaföðr,
Hvatmóðr, Hléfreyr,
Hveðrungr, Þriði,
Göllungr, Bileygr
ok Geirölnir,
Váfuðr, Valföðr,
Vingnir, Rögnir.
6. Sviðurr ok Skollvaldr,
Siggautr, Viðurr,
Sviðrir, Báleygr,
Sigðir, Brúni,
Sigmundr, Svölnir,
Síðskeggr ok Njótr,
Olgr, Biflindi
ok Ennibrattr.
7. Bölverkr, Eylúðr,
Brúnn, Sanngetall,
Þekkr, Þuðr, Ómi,
Þundr ok Ófnir,
Uðr, Jólnir, Vakr,
Jálkr ok Langbarðr,
Grímr ok Löndungr,
Gestumblindi.
8. Sigtryggr, Jörmunr,
Saðr, Gunnblindi,
Jafnhár, Óski,
Jölfuðr ok Þrór,
Ýjungr, Skilfingr,
Óðinn, Tveggi,
Veratýr, Sigþrór,
Valgautr ok Yggr.
Finally I would like to mention a body of Eddaic literature
which is little known outside of Iceland. These are the so-called
17th and 18th century Eddas, which were composed at a time when
there was a resurgence of interest in things Eddaic both among the
learned classes in Iceland and among academics in the rest of Europe.
These "new" Eddas were not composed out of thin air, but were based on
medieval manuscripts which were in existence at that time in
Iceland, and therefore contain mostly authentic material. Perhaps
the most important of these Eddas is the one commonly known as
Laufás-Edda, which was compiled by defrocked minister Magnús
Ólafsson at the instigation of Arngrímur Jónsson (1568-1648),
the greatest antiquarian scholar of the Icelandic renaissance.
Magnús Ólafsson's Edda has been analyzed in great detail, and
it has been shown that it was compiled from a copy of the Codex
Wormianus (mentioned above) which at that time obviously existed
in a much more complete state than is the case today, and that
Magnús must also have had access to another medieval manuscript
(a variant recension) of Snorri's Edda, which has now been
irretrievably lost. There is some mythologial information in
Magnús's Edda, which is not found in any of the extant medieval
manuscripts, and it is generally assumed that this derived from
the "other" manuscript used by Magnús. Magnús later translated
his Edda into Latin ("Edda Islandorum") and this translation
circulated widely in Europe at the time.
Below is a short passage from the Laufás-Edda. It is in some ways
similar to corresponding passages in the various recensions of
Skáldskaparmál, but it also contains data not found anywhere else.
Not that the spelling is "modern", due to the lateness of the
manuscript - in this case GKS 2368, which contains one of the
better recensions of the "Y" version of the Laufás-Edda:
"Skjöldur er og kallaður Hlakkar tjald,
sem Grettir kvað:
Heldu Hlakkar tjalda
hefjendr saman nefjum,
Hildar veggs ok hjuggusk
hregg-Nirðir til skeggjum.
Hér kallast og skjöldurinn Hildar veggur.
Skips sól og Róða ræfur, sem Einar kvað:
Leyg rýðr ætt á ægi
Óláfs skipa sólar.
Hlýrtungl, sem Refur kvað. Garður skips.
Ullar askur, sem kveðið er:
Ganga él of yngva
Ullar skips með fullu,
þars samnagla siglur
slíðrdúkaðar ríða.
Ullur átti skip það er Skjöldur hét, því
er skjöldurinn kallaður skip hans. Skjöldur
heitir iljablað Hrungnis, item Hildar hjól
og baugjörð. Skjöldur er kallaður skip Ullar,
og kennt til fóta Hrungnis, er hann stóð á
skildi, þá er hann skyldi berjast við Þór.
Á fornum skildi var títt að skrifa rönd þá er
baugur var kallaður, og eru við þann baug
skildir kenndir. Skjaldborgin er kölluð höll,
ræfur, veggur, gólf. Skildir eru kenndir við
herskip: sól eða tungl, eða lauf, eða blik,
eða garður skipsins. Skjöldur er land vopnanna,
en vopn er hagl eða regn þess lands, ef
nýgjörningum er ort."
Of other important late Eddas, there is one of particular
interest I would like to mention: the Edda compiled by Jón
Ólafsson from Grunnavík ("Jón grunnvíkingur"), the famous
18th century antiquarian, who collected a great amount of
Prose Edda texts throughout his lifetime. His mammoth
collection of texts, translations, and copious notes, was
completed in 1765, and combined in four large volumes, which
are still extant as AM 429 fol. As far as I know, this has
never been published, and I have heard of no plans for its
publication. But it is listed on the "Sagnanet" website,
although it doesn't appear to have been scanned yet. It would
be good news, indeed, if it were made available.