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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Note to Arn Hryn 7II

[1, 2] eyðir gráðar ulfa ‘queller of the greed [FEEDER] of wolves [WARRIOR]’: The image of a warrior feeding or gladdening the beasts of battle by providing them with the corpses of his enemies is commonplace, but structurally this is a rare sub-type of kenning in which eyðir gráðar ‘queller of the greed or hunger’ clearly functions in the same way as agent nouns such as the simplex fœðir ‘feeder’ or teitir ‘gladdener’ elsewhere (Meissner 310). Whether eyðir gráðar should itself be regarded as a kenning, as assumed here, is less certain, since a kenning that is a base-word, and that requires an object (here the wolves), is highly unusual. For a detailed discussion of kennings of this type, see General Introduction, SkP I.

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
  3. SkP I = Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Ed. Diana Whaley. 2012.

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