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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Note to Anon (TGT) 32III

[All]: Antonomasia in this case occurs by an extrinsic comparison in the word sælan ‘fortunate one’ for the king (TGT 1927, 79): Hér er sæll settr fyrir nafni konungs, ok er svá óeiginlig liking, en sæla kemr af tilfellum, ok er hér hvarki eiginlig ǫnd né líkam. Þessa fígúru kǫllu vér njarðarvǫtt í skáldskap, ok er hon þó eigi með leyfum talið ‘Here “fortunate” is used instead of the king’s name, and it is thus an improper comparison, because fortune comes from circumstance and here does not belong to either mind or body. We call this figure “sponge” in poetry but it is not counted among the [poetical] licences’. The particular grammatical sense of the native term njarðarvǫttr ‘sponge’ is not otherwise attested. For njarðarvǫttr lit. ‘Njǫrðr’s mitten’ and, by extension of meaning ‘sea-mitten’ (glossing Lat. spongia), see Fritzner: njarðarvǫttr.

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
  3. TGT 1927 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1927b. Óláfr Þórðarson: Málhljóða- og málskrúðsrit. Grammatisk-retorisk afhandling. Det kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. Historisk-filologiske meddelelser 13, 2. Copenhagen: Høst.

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