--- In norse_course@..., Haukur Thorgeirsson <haukurth@...> wrote:

> What did Snorri mean by "Skelfr askr." ?

Nice riddle, Haukur. Provides a good example of the
many opportunities for arriving at the wrong conclusion
via imperfect command of the language of the texts (a
common pitfall of even the academics, I'm afraid). The
best answer to the riddle is, of course, provided by
Rígsþula 42:6.

Only this morning, I came across a typical example of
this kind. It is a quote from an academic, who has set
out to prove that Heiðr, the "völva" named in Völuspá,
is a personification of the "poetic mead". Here's the
short quote I stumbled over:

"Heiðr is also the name of an Icelandic sibyll; she advised the new
arrivals which of the lands they were to take. A close relation
between the sibyl and the mead is indicated by the kenning Heiðrs
hrönn = "Heiðr's wave" = mead = poem (skj 183, 1, 3-4)."

A close relation between the sibyl and the mead? Well,
I'm afraid not. To begin with, if the phrase meant
"Heiðr's wave" the text would have to read "Heiðar hrönn",
as this is the correct form of the völva's feminine name.
"Heiðrs" would have to be a genitive of the masculine name
*Heiðurr, which I don't think exists at all.

It is a moot point anyway, because the actual stanza quoted
doesn't say any such thing. It is an obscure and debated
stanza attributed to Helgi Ásbjarnarson in the Droplaugarsona
saga (see ÍF XI, p. 167). The words in question read "heið ...
hravnn" in the only extant manuscript (Möðruvallabók), and
are usually EMENDED to read "Heiðs hrönn", where it is assumed
that Heiðr (masculine) is a giant's name, and the phrase a
kenning for the poetic mead. But they could never have
read "Heiðar ... hrönn", which would be metrically impossible.

So, one more example of an academic who slept through his Old
Norse grammar classes, I'm afraid. There isn't, and never was,
such a kenning for the mead as "wave of the sibyl Heiðr". This
ludicrous idea is simply a figment of the fertile imagination
of an poorly qualified academic with a bee in her bonnet. But
unfortunately that doesn't prevent it from being flogged as
"Old Norse scholarship" in certain circles.

Cheers,
Eysteinn