[5, 8] at láta fyr róða ‘to leave, cast to the winds, abandon’: Cf. the prayer to the Virgin preserved in HómÍsl 1872, 195: eige mic fyr róþa láta í náuþsyn miɴe ‘do not abandon me in my need’. The phrase is common in both verse and prose (cf. Fritzner: róði), and it is clear that the essential meaning is ‘to abandon’. Several different interpretations of róði have been offered, perhaps the most satisfactory being Finnur Jónsson’s suggestion (LP: róði) that róði should be understood as a heiti for the wind. This certainly renders the phrase at once vivid and accessible, and fits extremely well with the image-structure of Has.
References
- Bibliography
- LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
- 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.
- HómÍsl 1872 = Wisén, Theodor, ed. 1872. Homiliu-bók: Isländska homilier efter en handskrift från tolfte århundredet. Lund: Gleerup.
- Internal references
- Katrina Attwood 2007, ‘ Gamli kanóki, Harmsól’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 70-132. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1196> (accessed 3 June 2024)