Stahlgewitter=staalstorm is in the Edda

[Bertil Haggman <bertil.haggman@helsingborg.se>]

Rebing wrote:

as to the origin of "Stahlgewitter":
> Your hint it might come from a skald called Egil made me look through DIE GESCHICHTE VOM
> SKALDEN EGIL but to no avail. If EJ in fact found the word in the German translation of the
> Eddas (there are two of them, the poetic Edda and Snorri Sturluson's prose Edda) or of one
> of the Icelandic sagas it is probably not just a word in the text but a kenning. Webster's
> definition of kenning: "A metaphorical compound word or phrase used especially in Old
> English and Old Norse poetry. ('Germanic verse... laid stress upon the trope known as
> kenning: the ocean is the"whale's bath", the "foaming fields", the "sea street"'...) In fact
> there are quite a few kennings, all meaning "fight" or "battle", similar to "Stahlgewitter"
> in the poetic stanzas occasionally inserted in those great Icelandic stories called sagas. I
> have found "storm of arrows", "storm of spears", "storm of arms", "rain from the clouds of
> battle". The saga of Egil contains more than fifty such interspersed stanzas, there is even
> "tempest (Unwetter) of weapons" and "storm of spears", but no Stahlgewitter, thunderstorm of
> steel (the translation "Storms of Steel" of the book's title is not quite exact).
> 
> Instead of tackling the daunting task of searching all German translations of Nordic
> literature prior to 1920, when EJ chose his title, I turned to a dictionary of kennings. And
> indeed there is listed one single occurrence of "stala thrymr" which means exactly
> "thunderstorm of steel". It is supposed to be found in a poem by Thorkell Gislasson about
> whom hardly anything is known. So far I have failed to locate his poem.
> 
> I am presumptuous enough to believe that if I have such problems finding the word in a
> university library EJ never found it but invented it, inspired by similar kennings he
> encountered while reading the Thule edition of the Edda and the sagas which was in the
> course of being published while he wrote his first book. It is possible that the entire set
> of 24 volumes was published before the end of WWI. An ad of Eugen Diederichs Verlag in Jena
> in my copy of DIE GESCHICHTE VOM SKALDEN EGIL reads: "Die ersten 13 Bände liegen 1915
> vollständig vor. Bei einem Abonnement auf wenigstens 10 Bände ist der Preis um zirka 10 bis
> 15% ermäßigt...Die weiteren Bände werden 1916 in Angriff genommen. Die Schnelligkeit des
> Erscheinens hängt vom Wachsen des Interesses an der germanischen Vorzeit ab." EJ, the avid
> book collector, must have been tempted by this offer. His interest in Germanic prehistory
> and his knowledge probably of both Eddas is documented in the texts Bertil Haggman has just
> posted.
> 
> So at this point of this perplexing quest I challenge all who love like me such occasional
> games of nit-picking to prove me wrong: I believe that EJ did not find the word
> "Stahlgewitter" but invented it well in the spirit of the Edda and the sagas.

Guenter,

Must disagree with your theory. The kenning
"Stahlgewitter" exists in Swedish translations
of the Poetic Edda. Similar kennings like
"storm of arrows" for instance are not uncommon.

Like to refer you to _Den poetiska Eddan_ (i oever-
saettning av Bjoern Collinder), andra omarbetade
upplagan, ny tryckning 1993. In the wordlist
on page 345 there is:

staalstorm = strid, drabbning.

It fits perfectly and I believe EJ
is honest.

There is a special Edda institute or similar
in Germany publishing commentaries and
translation of the Edda. I believe it is
at the University of Frankfurt/Main. I had
a good contact there but lost the address.
Should not be too hard to find. Will also
make a try to find a list dedicated to the
Edda, subscribe and see what can be found.

Take care or as it says in Havamaal:

1 Man skall ingenstans gaa in genom doerren
  utan att se sig om
  utan att utforska allt,
  ty ovisst aer det var ovaenner
  sitta paa salens baenk.

Best wishes

Bertil