*This was originally compiled and posted by Sorn during his long tenure as Ritari. It has been reposted here in an effort to collect all our resources on our new site.
A handout for our March 2013 meeting:
The poem appears in its entirety in Codex Regius, and most of it (1-27) can also be found in AM 748 I 4to (a fragmentary manuscript from ca. 1300 best known for having the only extant text of Baldrs draumar). It is in the second manuscript that the poem is called Skirnismal; in Codex Regius, it is called For Skirnis (Skirnir’s Journey).
A Burning Ring of Fire: Apart from Gerð’s refusal, the wall of fire surrounding Gerð’s estate is perhaps Skirnir’s greatest obstacle. Skirnir asks for Freyr’s horse, capable of traveling past the flame, and the flame is the only obstacle that Gerð mentions when greeting Skirnir. Similar obstacles confront Svipdag and Sigurd; in Svipdag’s case, there are also ferocious dogs, while in Sigurd’s case, a special horse may make it past the flames.
In “Art and Tradition in Skirnismal,” Dronke argues that a wall of fire is a traditional barrier to the Underworld. Pointing to parallels in Celtic and Egyptian solar myths, she sees Skirnir’s passing through the wall of fire as a myth for “Freyr, the solar deity, whose shining messenger penetrates Iotunheimr, Underworld of the dead” (265). The myth as preserved in Skirnismal is thus both “a wooing and a release of new life from the world of the dead, whose enclosure is traditionally of flame” (267).
Skirnir’s Curse: Supporters of Dumezil’s tripartite theory, such as Nasstrom, see reflections of each of the three functions in Skirnir’s attempts to win Gerð for Freyr. The eleven golden apples (possibly, apples of everlasting youth) and the ring that drops eight new rings every ninth night (probably Draupnir) represent the third function, that of agriculture and wealth-generation. The threat of the sword represents the second function, that of warfare. The final curse represents the first function, that of magical-priestly sovereignty.
Orchard believes Skirnir’s threat to Gerð in Stanza 35, that she will be under the roots of a tree, is a common “punishment for women of doubtful reputation” (287). He cites similar imagery found in Voluspa for the Norns, Grimnismal for Hel, Helgakviða Hjorvarðssonar for Hrimgerð, and the Flateyjarbok version of Helreið Brynhildar for Brynhild.
Dronke in “Art and Tradition in Skirnismal” discusses some similar curses in the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad and the Atharva Veda. In the first, a hieros gamos is described in which the male approaches the female and first offers a blessing. If she does not yield, he then offers her presents. If she refuses the presents, he touches her with a rod and says “I by my power and my glory take thy glory to myself.” The woman is then shamed, but if she relents, then he can undo the curse, and “the two become glorious” (259). In the second, the set up is much the same, but the curse is more elaborate. The female is banned from marriage in normal society and is instead doomed to be a concubine to Yama, a god of death. She will have no joy in love and will have her generative organs sealed. This curse, like the first, can be lifted, providing “issue and wealth” (259). Dronke further speculates on a relationship between Skirnir’s curse and the curse Oðin carves on bark for Rind in Gesta Danorum when Oðin is trying to win the unwilling mother of Baldr’s avenger, believing Skirnir’s use of the gambanteinn and use of runic magic may have been influenced by portrayals of the Valfather (267). In her commentary to Skirnismal in her translation of the Poetic Edda, Dronke also demonstrates the similarity of Skirnir’s curse to different Greek and Roman love spells that create a sort of frenzied desire in the subject and seek to deny any satisfaction to the subject until she submits to the caster’s desire. In particular, she argues for a link with a love spell that appears in a fourteenth century curse (399):
Old Norse ek sendi ther
ek siða ther
ylgjar ergi ok uthola.
A ther renni utholi
ok iotuns moð.
Sittu aldri,
sof thu aldri . . .
ant mer sem sjalfri ther.
Dronke translation
I send you,
I conjure for you she-wolf’s lust and intolerable craving. May that craving catch hold of you and monstrous rage. Never sit, never sleep . . . love me like yourself.
There may also be a connection between the characters Skirnir says he will carve in Stanza 36 and the third stanza of the Icelandic Rune Poem:
Old Icelandic
Þurs er kvenna kvöl ok kletta búi ok varðrúnar verr.
Page translation
Þ is women’s torment
and crag dweller
and Valrun’s mate.
Most of the poem is composed in ljoðahattr (chant or song meter), but during Skirnir’s curse, the meter often shifts to galdralag (incantation or magic song meter, also called kviðuhattr or galdrahattr).
Ljoðahattr is most commonly rendered in stanzas of six lines, though some editors choose to make four-line stanzas. Ljoðahattr stanzas with six lines can be broken into two three-line parts. The first two lines have two to three alliterations and four stresses; these lines are followed by a line with two alliterations and three stresses.
In an ideal four line stanza, the odd-numbered lines have a cæsura in the middle and contain alliterative verse with four stresses and two or three alliterations. The even-numbered lines contain three stresses and two alliterations, and there is no cæsura.
Galdralag is usually created by adding a short extra line with three stresses to a ljoðahattr stanza; ideally, the extra line should parallel the previous line but not be anticipated by the earlier lines in the stanza. Because galdralag reads like ljoðahattr up until the extra line, the extra line comes as something of a surprise to the audience, creating a bit of extra power for the stanza. Occasionally, as with Oðin’s attempt at using galdralag against Loki in Lokasenna or as Skirnir’s curse develops in Skirnismal, more lines may be added to the galdralag for additional emphasis.
Old Norse
(Stanza 26) Tamsvendi ek þik drep, en ek þik temja mun, mær, at mínum munum; þar skaltu ganga, er þik gumna synir síðan æva séi.
Hollander translation
(Ljoðahattr)
With this magic wand
bewitch thee I shall,
my will, maiden, to do;
where the sons of men
will see thee no more,
thither shalt thou!
Old Norse
(Stanza 27)
Ara þúfu á
skaltu ár sitja
horfa heimi ór,
snugga heljar til;
matr né þér meir leiðr
en manna hveim
innfráni ormr með firum.
Hollander translation
(Galdralag)
On the eagle’s hill
shalt ever sit,
aloof from the world
lolling toward Hel.
To thee men shall be
more loathsome far
than to mankind the slimy snake.
Old Norse
(Stanza 34)
Heyri jötnar,
heyri hrímþursar,
synir Suttungs,
sjalfir ásliðar,
hvé ek fyrbýð,
hvé ek fyrirbanna
manna glaum mani,
manna nyt mani.
Hollander translation
(Galdralag with extra line) Hear ye frost-giants, hear ye etins, ye sons of Sutting, all ye sibs of the Æsir: how I forbid, how I debar men’s mirth to the maid, men’s love to the maid.
Old Norse
(Stanza 36)
Þurs ríst ek þér
ok þría stafi,
ergi ok æði ok óþola;
svá ek þat af ríst,
sem ek þat á reist,
ef gerask þarfar þess.
Hollander translation
(Ljoðahattr) A ‘thurs’ rune for thee and three more I scratch: lechery, loathing, and lust; off I shall scratch them, as on I did scratch them, if of none there be need.
References: Acker, P. et al. (2002) The Poetic Edda: Essays on Old Norse Mythology.
Dronke, U. (1996) Myth and Fiction in Early Norse Lands.
Nasstrom, B. (2003) Freyja, the Great Goddess of the North.
Page, R. (1999) The Icelandic Rune Poem.
The Poetic Edda. (1936) Translated with commentary by Henry Bellows.
—. (1962) Translated with commentary by Lee M. Hollander.
—. (1996) Translated with commentary by Carolyne Larrington.
—. (2011). Translated with commentary by Andy Orchard.
The Poetic Edda: Volume II: Mythological Poems. (1997) Edited with Translation, Introduction, and Commentary by Ursula Dronke.
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