Home of the Eddic Lays
Chapter 4
the earth. In AS poetry wang is used in the same way, e.g. neorxnawang, 'Paradise.' The plain of Paradise where the Phoenix dwelt, is repeatedly called wang. In view of this frequent use of the word wang in AS and of the general similarity between the phraseology of OS and AS poetry, I conclude that heofonwang, 'plain of heaven,' was used as a poetical circumlocution for heaven in AS poetry also, and that the word was carried over, directly or indirectly, from some AS poem into the Helgi-lay. (24)
In what precedes I have tried to show that certain of the phrases peculiar to the First Helgi-lay arose in Britain under English influence. I shall now examine a number of phrases in the same poem, which also occur (or have parallels) in other Old Norse poems, even outside of the Edda; and I hope to prove that some of these are due to AS influence, or at least show a remarkable agreement with AS poetic expressions. I shall also point out the probability of Irish influence on at least one phrase in the ON poem.
As I shall show later (see App. II.) hjálmvitr, 'helmet-wights,' and sárvitr fluga, 'the flying wound-wight,' H. H., I, 54, are imitations of alvitr in the Lay of Wayland---a word which was understood as 'all-wights, wights through and through,' although it really corresponds to the AS ælbite or elfete, 'swans.'
Ræsir, (25) 'king,' occurs in H. H., I, 17, in H. Hj., 18, in the Reginsmál, 14, in the story of Halfdan the Old, and in the Hákonarmál, in a narrower sense also in the artificial poetry of the skalds. (26) It is the same word as the AS ræswa. Neither the ON nor the AS word is found in prose. The AS word means 'counsellor' (e.g. cyninges ræswa, Daniel, 417) or 'ruler' (e.g. folces, weorodes, etc., ræswa, 'ruler of the people, army'). A king is sometimes called ræswa, without any dependent genitive. The word comes from the substantive ræs (dat. pl., raswum) (27), which means 'advise,' 'the giving of advice,' and which in its turn is based on AS. rædan, 'to advise, to rule' = ON ráða. Cf. the AS. ræsbora, 'counsellor, ruler, king'; meotudes ræswum (Azarias, 126), 'by God's guidance'; ræswan, 'to think, suppose, guess.' Since there is no trace in ON of any substantive based on ráða from which ræsir could have been formed, and since there is no trace in ON of ræsir in the more original meaning of 'counsellor,' we must conclude that the word was borrowed from AS ræswa, and came into Norse through Norse poems composed in Britain. (28)
In H. H., I, 51, Höthbrodd, on hearing that enemies have landed, says: Renni 'raven' bitluð (with a v run together), 'let the bitted animals run.' Here, raukn bitluð, neut. pl., signifies 'horses.' In the Shield-poem of Bragi the Old, the same words are used (in my opinion by imitation of the Helgi-lay) (29) in the strophe on Gefjon, who ploughs Zealand from Sweden with four oxen: svát af rennirauknum | rauk, ' so that it smoked from the running animals.' Here the word is used of oxen. In kennings for ship ('steed of the sea') raukn, neut. pl., is used by many Icelandic skalds. (30) In prose the word occurs neither in old nor in modern times. Its real meaning appears to be 'animals (horses or oxen) which are used for rapid advance.'
The word raukn is connected with rekinn, (31) which, like its derivative rekningr, (32) is used as a poetic term for 'ox.' (33)
I have suggested that rekinn and raukn are loan words from AS. recen, 'ready, quick.' (34) The corresponding adverb is written also recone, recune, ricene. Thus rekinn, raukn, appear to have been used by the poet instead of the ON prose word skjótr, 'post-horse,' based on the adj. skjótr, 'quick' (cf. Old Swedish skiut, masc., a mare).
The word mengi, neut., 'a multitude,' used often (see H. H., I, 26, 50; Brot. 9.; Sig., 56, 66; Akv., 4; also in Eiríksmál, in a verse in the Hervararsaga, in Har. s. hárf., 31 (Torfeinar), and in Merlínuuspá), but only of persons, never occurs in prose. It differs by its n from margr, 'many a' with r, and was probably borrowed from AS. mengeo, (35) fem., 'a multitude.'
In H. H., I, 54, the slain lying on the battle field are called Hugins barr, 'the grain of Hugin (Odin's raven).' As I have noted in App. II., this phrase was imitated by later Icelandic skalds. It is, however, self-evident that it must have originated in a land with extensive grain-fields, and it is therefore improbable that the Helgi-lay, in which the phrase first appears , was composed in Greenland or Iceland. On the other hand, the designation of corpses on the battle-field as 'Odin's raven's grain' appears to be an imitation of an Irish poetic expression. In The Yellow Book of Lecan, an Irish MS. of the first half of the fifteenth century, and in other Irish MSS., we find the following explanation: 'The crop of Macha (a war goddess, battle-fury), i.e. the heads of men who were killed in battle.' (36) The expression 'Macha's crop' is certainly many centuries older than the MSS. in which it is preserved. In the Irish Chronicle Cogadh Gaidhel (ed Todd, p. 191), the slaughter in the Battle of Clontarf is said to have appeared to the spectators on Dublin wall like the mowing of a field of oats. Sitric, son of Amlaib (Sigtrygg Silkbeard, son of Óláf Kvaran), stood in the watch-tower with his wife, Brian's daughter, and he said to her: 'The strangers reap the field well; many is the sheaf they let go from them.' (37) The poetic phrase 'Macha's crop' is the more natural, because, according to Cogadh Gaidhel, Badb, who, like Macha, was a warfury, hovered over the heads of the warriors in the Battle of Clontarf.
As to the personal surroundings in which the author of the First Helgi-lay lived, we may, I think, draw some inferences from his poetic phraseology. He has no less than twenty-one different names for king. Many of these, moreover, occur in older Eddic poems, which as we can prove on other grounds, the author knew. Evidently, therefore, the poet must have lived at a king's court, (38) and must have had the poems of other court skalds as models. (39) And since, as we have seen, the author of the First Helgi-lay gives evidence of having associated with Irishmen and Englishmen, the courts at which he lived must have been those of Irish or English kings.
ENDNOTES:
23. Cf. H. H., I, 54: 'There came down from heaven the helmet-decked wights (battle-maidens).' Back
24. With reference to the pl. form Himinvanga as opposed to the sing. hebanwang in OS., we may compare the similar change of the name of Freyja's hall Fólkvangr in one MS. of Snorri's Edda (see A. M. edition, I, 96) to Fólkvangar. Back
25. My remarks on ræsir were written down before I saw the discussion of the word by Gislason, Efterladte Skrifter, I, 241. He suggests a loan from AS., but does not come to any definite decision. Back
26. In the Glymdrápa (Haraldssaga hárfagra, II), and in the poems of Arnór Jarlaskáld, Markús Skeggjason, Thorkell Gíslason, Hallfreth, Thjóthólf Arnórsson, and others. Snorri also uses it. Back
27. See Cosijn in Sievers, Beiträge, XIX, 447. Back
28. As regards its ending, ON ræsir bears the same relation to AS ræswa that ON vísir, 'prince', bears to the synonymous vísi, AS wîsa. Old Norse poets brought ræsir into connection with the genuine Norse word ræsa, 'to set in motion,' as is evident from Snorri's Háttatal, 17, 7, and the commentary on that passage. This late conception brought about the use of ræsir in the sense of 'he who sets in motion,' with a governed genitive, in kennings for 'a man,' e.g. Glúm Geirason's ræsir rôgeisu, 'he who sets the battle-flame (i.e. sword) in motion.' I shall not discuss here the words jöfurr and vísi, 'king,' although they might support my opinions as to ræsir. Falk also (see Arkiv for Nordisk Filologi, V, 258) regards ræsir as a loan word from AS ræswa. Back
29. See my Bidrag til den ældste Skaldedigtnings Historie, p. 48. Back
30. By Thorleik Fagri, by Thorkel Gíslason in Búadrápa, by Gunnlaug Leifsson in Merlínusspá, by Snorri in Háttatal, and by Sturla. Back
31. Sn. Edda, I, 484. Instead of this we find reginn in Sn. E., I, 587; II, 483, 566; and in Upps. E., I, 484. Back
32. Sn. E., I, 587; II, 483, 866. Egilsson connects the word with reka. Back
33. So also Wimmer, Oldn. Læsebog, II, xvi f, note 2. Back
34. Cf. my Bidrag til den ældste Skaldedigtnings Historie, p. 30. On blóðrekinn, H. H., I, 9, cf. above, p. 21. The diphthong au probably arose instead of e through the influence of genuine Norse words in which similar changes have taken place. Back
35. Cf. e.g. mænigo þus micle, Crist, 156, and mid mengu mâran, gûðl., 208, with mengi til mikit, Eiríksmál, mikit er þeira mengi, Herv. s., p. 285, and miklu mest mengi þeira, H. H., I, 50. Note that the poem Eiríksmál was influenced by English Poetry. the word mengi may, indeed, be used to characterise the time of heroic poetry, but F. Jónsson is scarcely justified in using it to decide the time of certain heroic poems as opposed to that of others. Back
36. Mesrad machæ, i. cendæ doine iar na nairlech (Hennessy in Rev. Celt., I, 36). Mesrad is also used of the feeding of swine on acorns. Back
37. Is imda serrtlaigi leccait uathib. Similar expressions occut in the popular poetry of other peoples. See e.g. Danmarks gamle Folkeviser, No. 136 A, v. 7: 'They struck down the men of Vestergyllen as peasants harvest grain.' Back
38. Another reason for believing that the First Helgi-lay cannot have been composed in Greenland. Back
39. The same thing may be said of the authors of the so-called Second Helgi-lay, for there we find fourteen names for king, two of which do not occur in the First Lay. Back
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