--- Selvarv Stigard <selvarv@...> wrote:

> just a thought here, that since a lacuna seems to
> exist in the versions from two manuscripts, this
> would mean the text was damaged in the sources

Selvarv,

There is actually no evidence for a lacuna in either
of the two extant mss. of Hymiskviða. It used to be
a fashion among academics to postulate imaginary
"lacunas" whenever they had difficulties understanding
the old poems, but the simple fact is that the poems
were composed for an audience that knew the myths much
better than we do, and were perfectly able to "fill in
the gaps" as it were.

Actually we have a very good example of this near the
end of the same poem, where the myth of Thor's goat's
lame leg is very vaguely referred to, and followed by
the poet's words:

En ér heyrt hafið
- hverr kann um þat
goðmálugra
görr at skilja ....

"But you have heard this already - any lore-wise
man can readily expound on this..."

If the poet had failed to mention this, I do not
doubt that a scholar would have postulated a lacuna
to account for the poet's failure to tell the story
at greater length.

As for the imaginary lacuna after "horna tveggja",
this is simply, well, uh, imaginary. Þórr has just
beheaded one of the giant's bulls, and the giant is
peeved about it. What he says has got nothing to do
with the boat and their placement in it. It is an
angry comment on what Þórr has just done, i.e. killed
a bull. If we really *must* have a lacuna, it would
be better placed after the words "en þú kyrr sitir".

Regards
Eysteinn