Mythological Motivation in Eddic Heroic Poetry: Interpreting Grottasöngr (original) (raw)

Abstract

In an article on Grottasöngr from 1990, Joseph Harris promoted the view of Eddic tradition as a form of intertextuality—each oral poem a kind of " concretation of tradition " —and advocated the exploration of, as he put it, " the principles of code coherence in the matrix form " revealed by each text (1990, 238–239). Some of Harris's ideas were taken up by Vésteinn Ólason, who, in his 2005 analysis of the poem, considered its evident artistry as well as its relationship to other Eddic mythological poems. In this chapter, I take up the challenge posed by Harris to articulate in detail the codes underlying the poem's composition by analyzing the way in which Grot-tasöngr switches between discursive modes and draws on conventions of Eddic staging, with particular attention to the degree to which mythological ideas are engaged in the work. The title of the poem, which like those of many other Eddic poems is a compound made up of a noun denoting the sound of human speech and the possessive form of a name (Quinn 1990), departs from the pattern in using the possessive form of the name of an inanimate object (the millstone Grotti) as the fi rst component of the compound , rather than the personal names of the speakers, Fenja and Menja, who identify themselves as giantesses during the course of the poem. In this defl ection from convention, we may perceive the principal conceit of the poem: the song of Grotti is the expression of supernatural power misap-prehended by Fróði, the unwise king who interprets the sound of milling as the fulfi llment of his greedy exploitation of the mill-workers to mint him wealth. Accordingly, the song that he is unable to tune into refers both to the sound of the milling and the words chanted by the giantesses, the latter making explicit his political misprision. Being voiced by giantesses, the millstone's song is invested with considerable mythological portent, and an encounter between a king and his slaves is transformed in the poem into a clash between giant-kind (who are represented as controlling the natural resources of the world) and a human leader exposed for his folly in believing he could exploit their power without having fi rst gained their favor. The mode of the poem, the dramatization of an encounter between speakers from diff erent mythological spheres, is one familiar from a number of Eddic poems, with Vafþrúðnismál (The Words of Vafþrúðnir)

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References (53)

  1. Tolley describes "the seemingly nonsensical manuscript 'þulu'" as "a mis- take" (45) and amends the text to "þutu þognhorfnar (they started [the screaching], shunned by silence)" (37), while Dronke, judging the "more sedate" manuscript reading þulu to be a confusion of þutu, which "could apply to wild wolvish sounds" of the young giantesses (147), amends the text to þutu þögn horfi n var (translated as "they shouted [shouts]-silence had vanished!"). Compare Faulkes: "They drew forth the sound of the silence- banished thing" (1987, 108) and the glossary translation of þögnhorfi nn: "having lost its silence" (assuming gen. kvernar with þyt) (Snorri Sturluson 1998, 439).
  2. On þulir see Poole; Óðinn and his peer-in-wisdom, the giant Vafþrúðnir, are described as a fi mbulþulr and inn gamli þulr, respectively (Hávamál 80, 111, 142; Vafþrúðnismál 9).
  3. Compare Faulkes, who notes "the proposal may be to stop grinding rather than to start" (1998, 188) and the discussion of the word in von See et al. (879-880).
  4. Editors usually adopt the Trajectinus reading of this line in preference to the Regius reading, which does not include a verb; Bugge, however, keeps the Regius line (326), and Dronke notes that "the stanza is more striking if there is not a third mölum inserted" (146).
  5. See von See et al. (2000, 886). Tolley translates this unusual construction "let us grind him all-fortunate" (37), whereas Dronke amends the text to alsaelu and translates "let us grind all good fortune" (140).
  6. The syntax of lines 3-4 appears elliptical, and I follow Faulkes in my transla- tion of of as "above" (1998, 366); for a detailed discussion of the lines, see von See et al. (893-896). Tolley amends to "Sofi ð eigi þit meir en syngrat gaukr," based on the prose paraphrase of the legend preceding the poem in Skáldskaparmál and on a putative borrowing into the poem from a verse by Egill Skallagrímsson (48); Dronke also uses the prose text to guide the resto- ration of what she terms the "badly broken text," though she acknowledges that the emended text is one that she has "invented" (140). Compare Bugge (326), Jón Helgason (90), Neckel and Kuhn (298), and Faulkes (1998, 53), where the manuscript text is not emended.
  7. Dronke imagines specifi c stage directions to accompany these stanzas: "[Menja stops milling and looks critically at the sleeping Fróði]" (141).
  8. The Regius manuscript appears to indicate a doubling of the t in vitt (Tra- jectinus reads vit), which some editors have construed as a reference to magic: see von See et al. (901-907). Bugge treats vitt as adverbial ("widely") (327). Compare Neckel and Kuhn (298), Faulkes (1998, 54), Tolley (39), and Dronke (141), who maintain vit. Tolley and Dronke, however, both amend the abbreviated hennar to kvernar at the end of the stanza.
  9. Margaret Clunies Ross (127ff .) examines myths in which natural resources coveted by the gods are stolen from giants and converted by male deities into cultural resources. With Oosten (64), her emphasis is on the role of males in transforming natural resources, with females credited only with a role in the transfer of goods. Neither discusses Grottasöngr, which depicts a rather diff erent scenario, in which giantesses provide men (rather than gods) with a natural resource and the means to capitalize on it.
  10. Dronke notes: "clearly not 'bears' but 'fi erce warriors' . . . real bears would not have shields and iron-mail jerkins" (147); see also von See et al. (913-916).
  11. Mala skyldu (st. 3), mölum and þá er vel malit (st. 5), né moeli svá maer ber- grisa (st. 10), malit hefi ek fyrir mik (st. 17), mól míns föður maer ramliga (st.
  12. molum enn framar (st. 22), mólu meyjar (st. 23), and malit höfum and hafa fullstaðit fl jóð at meldri (st. 24). On the temporal perspectives of the poem, see von See et al. (852) and Vésteinn Ólason (122-127).
  13. Faulkes translates "shown no mercy" (1987, 109), with the sense "merciless" acknowledged in his glossary (Snorri Sturluson 1998, 356); Tolley too sees the agency here as Fróði's rather than theirs, translating "and without pity have been put as slaves" (40), as does Dronke: "accorded no compassion" (143). In line with the interpretation suggested above, von See et al. translate "die Unbarmherzigen" (922-923).
  14. Dronke interprets the change in meal from gold to warriors here as a conse- quence of Fróði's design rather than the giantesses', in response to which she regards them as being "grievously off ended" (148).
  15. The manuscript reads leiti: see von See et al. (928-930) and Faulkes (1998, 345) for a discussion of the word. Tolley amends to hleyti and translates "in accord with my pledge" (40), as does Dronke (143).
  16. See von See et al. for a discussion of this problematic line, which is amended to hendr skulu höndla by them (933-935) and other editors: Jón Helga- son (92), Neckel and Kuhn (300), Tolley (41), and Dronke (143). Compare, though, Bugge (328) and Faulkes (1998, 327).
  17. Compare Völuspá 30, 31, 38, 59, 64; Hyndluljóð 19.
  18. See Lexicon poeticum, s.v. spjall, which in addition to the senses "account" and "news," also carries the meaning "destruction," producing a further intensifying reading "killing-destruction begins." Forn spjöll is also the description used by the völva in the fi rst stanza of Völuspá to denote her prophecy about the destruction of the gods.
  19. Judging that "the aspirations of the author of Grottasongr were clearly less lofty [than those of the poet of Darraðarljóð]," Tolley speculates what a "greater poet" might have done with the material (28).
  20. See e.g., "There is no real purpose in their curriculum vitae, and it was mere chance that they happened to be responsible for wrenching the great boulders from the mountain side. . . . Looking back from their abject position . . . they impose their own fatalism upon their life story . . . now seen as a deliberate self-humiliation, almost a divine kenosis" (16).
  21. The meaning of the manuscript reading valmar (with a hook between the l and m) is unclear. Jón Helgason keeps the manuscript text (92); Faulkes speculates the word may have been intended to be valmaer ("slaughter-girls") (1998, 420). Bugge, however, amended to varmar (328), and this reading is adopted by Neckel and Kuhn (300). Tolley (57) and Dronke (149) amend to vamlar, which is taken to mean "squeamish." The wording of Codex Tra- jectinus, valnar ("stiff with cold") is adopted by von See et al. (946-947).
  22. See, for example, the move from third-to fi rst-person narration in stanza 9 or the shift from a singular to dual fi rst-person construction in stanza 17. Bugge identifi es the points in the delivery when he thinks one speaker took over from her sister (441-444), as does Dronke (139-145).
  23. On this stanza, which many editors regard as problematic because of its misfi t with details in other sources, see von See et al. (950-960) and Tolley (58-59).
  24. See Gylfaginning (Faulkes 1988, 50, 51), Skáldskaparmál (Faulkes 1998, 20), and Gylfaginning (Faulkes 1988, 35).
  25. Compare Oddrúnargrátr 8, where a similar inquit is also used to introduce a momentous declaration. Both stanzas 7 and 24 of Grottasöngr are only six lines long, a shift in stanzaic rhythm that reinforces their impact; stanzaic shortening occurs at other points in the poem as well (sts. 3, 4, 14).
  26. On the diction used in the poem, see further von See et al. (853-855) and compare the surprising assessment of Tolley, who judges "the riddling con- text [of describing warriors as bears in st. 13] appears to be lost on the poet of Grottasongr" (53).
  27. Compare Tolley: "There is nothing of a mythological nature in the poem which challenges our understanding: indeed, there is little refl ection of what must once have been a rich mythological fi eld" (31).
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