Cookies on our website

We use cookies on this website, mainly to provide a secure browsing experience but also to collect statistics on how the website is used. You can find out more about the cookies we set, the information we store and how we use it on the cookies page.

Continue

skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

Menu Search

Note to Sigv Knútdr 10I

[7-8]: As Frank (1994b, 118) points out, all three of the alliterating words in this couplet are loanwords. Kærr ‘dear’ is from French (Fischer 1909, 80), keisari ‘emperor’ from Lat. via OE or Ger. (Fischer 1909, 59), and klúss ‘close’ probably also from Lat. via OE or Ger. (though Fischer 1909, 79 suggests French), while the fourth word, Pétrús(i), is a Biblical name in Latinate form. As Frank (loc. cit.) states, ‘The four words, linked by rhyme and consonance, re-enact, recapitulate, Cnut’s successful “networking” with the two great political powers of Western Europe’. For all four words, this is their first recorded occurrence in skaldic verse.

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. Fischer, Frank. 1909. Die Lehnwörter des Altwestnordischen. Palaestra 85. Berlin: Mayer & Müller.
  3. Frank, Roberta. 1994b. ‘King Cnut in the Verse of his Skalds’. In Rumble 1994, 106-24.

Close

Log in

This service is only available to members of the relevant projects, and to purchasers of the skaldic volumes published by Brepols.
This service uses cookies. By logging in you agree to the use of cookies on your browser.

Close