Lynda Maynard wrote:

>Ok, I'll bite. What's a "lacuna"?

It literally means a ditch, a lake or anything with a hole in it - it's
related to the word "lagoon". In a literary context, it refers to a gap in
the text, whether due to damage, a problem in copying, and on occasion when
a poet has left something out for space considerations, although the last
one is an inaccurate use of the term. Typically, it refers to a portion of
damaged text which cannot be recovered, producing a hole in any
transcription or translation. Fortunately, technology is advancing to such
a state that it is becoming possible to recover what was written in lacunæ,
increasing our source material (and I am currently seeking education which
will make it possible for me to assist in this endeavour).

Eysteinn wrote:

>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.

I hadn't been clear enough regarding the purpose of my post - I was
following the academic logic Keth had mentioned, of a possible lacuna in
the text, and pointing out that if the two ancient copies of this poem both
have the lacuna, it would have to had existed in the text long enough that
there is no reason to suppose Snorri had a version with the missing
text. All that, however, would be dependant upon an abrupt change in the
direction of the narrative being caused by a lacuna in a previous version,
which is not proven, just theorised to explain a difficult passage.

Sorry for my lack of clarity.

-Selv

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