One of the stranger forms of Icelandic poetry is the
'trölla-slagur' or 'risa-slagur'. The words 'tröll' and
'risi' mean "troll" and "giant" but I'm not sure if
'slagur' means "fight, battle" here or perhaps
"poem" or even "dance". In any case the poems look
like they must have been danced to. Unfortunately no
description of the dance has come down to us.
The metre is peculiar. It looks like it is derived
from some of the intricate 'dróttkvætt' metres but
the difference between the even and the odd lines
has been exaggerated.
Here is my favorite 'tröllaslagur'. The first 10 lines
are in the strange metre but the last 7 lines are in
a simpler limerick-like end-rhymed form.
Hríð gríðar hörð reið
hrönnum svo tönnum að mönnum
gnísti nistin gulls hast,
sá gangur var langur og strangur.
Söng spöngin seims grund
sjálfar heims álfur þá skjálfa.
Dundu undir dverglönd
drósar við glósur á Ósi -
dansaði fansinn ós unns
svo öllum lá tröllum við föllum.
Sá dagur er mér í minni
meður þjáning sinni;
hestar sprungu
af harki þungu,
heitur sem þeim brynni
eldur í nösum inni
þá Eyvör sprakk í skinni.
Parts of this are quite difficult but I've attempted to translate:
A hard snow-storm of the giantess rode
waves with haste towards men so that
the Nist of gold gnashed her teeth. (1)
That walk was long and hard.
The clothes-fastener, the ground of gold, (2) sung,
then the very continents of the world tremble.
The lands of the dwarfs resounded underneath
by the non-sense (3) of the woman at Ós.
The throng danced the river-mouth of Unnur (4)
so that all the trolls were close to falling.
That day is in my memory
with its suffering;
horses died (5)
from their heavy toil,
as if a hot fire
was burning within their nostrils
when Eyvör died (5) from exhaustion in her skin.
1. That first sentence is intricate. There's surely more
than one way to interpret it. I don't know if 'hast' is
to be taken as an adverb.
2. Weird syntax. If we had genitive (spangar) instead of
nominative it would be more comprehensible.
3. The word 'glósur' is unexpected here. Its usual meaning
is "notes" and I had thought it a rather modern word.
4. No promises that this is correct.
5. The verb 'springa', occurring twice, can mean "to burst"
as well as "to die from over-exertion". I don't know if
'springa í skinni' has some particular meaning.
There are some kenningar here.
hríð gríðar (snow-storm of the giantess): mind
nistin gulls (the Nist of gold): woman (Nist is a valkyrie)
seims grund (the ground of gold): woman
ós unns (the river-mouth of Unnur): poetry (Unnur is one of Óðinn's names)
From this specimen one might imagine that a 'tröllslagur' was performed
by a woman singing and a group of men dancing. Here is another 'tröllaslagur'
that might support this view:
Tröllaslagur hinn forni
Fer her ei fótspar
flokkum vér brokkum með stokkum,
undir grund og yfir lönd
á eykjum svo feykjum vér reykjum.
Vindur blindar vogsund,
vökum vér tökum við rökum,
hryllir illa, hríðgöll
hreppum, vér sleppum af greppum.
Gull er grams múta,
geymdu það Rúta,
látum slúta
lengi lúta.
Svo kváðu meyjar undir Skjaldbreiðarskúta.
Fimtíu í flokki saman
frömdu þetta gaman.
I won't even attempt to translate this, as far as I can see
the bulk of it has no coherent meaning. However, the last
three lines mean:
In such a way maidens sung under Skjaldbreiðarskúti (Broad-shield-cave).
Fifty together in a group
performed this entertainment.
My source for this is the excellent "Íslenzkir víkivakar og víkivakakvæði"
by Ólafur Davíðsson. He mentions Grímur Thomsen's view that the troll fights
were "obviously" related to the Norwegian 'springdans' and 'Hallingdans'.
Does that make any sense to you, Konrad?