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Anon Mv III 16^VII l. 5

meiðs — of the tree

lemma:

meiðr (noun m.): beam, tree

readings:

[5] meiðs: meið 721

notes:

[5] meiðs mens ‘of the tree of the neck-ring [MAN]’: Wrightson retains meið (m. acc. sg.) ‘tree’ and treats meið mens ‘tree of the necklace’ as a parallel construction to klerks sál ‘the cleric’s soul’. That requires that býð ‘summon’ is taken in the meaning ‘offer’ (which takes the acc. rather than the dat.; however, Wrightson still reads ‘summon’) and leaves því máli (n. dat. sg.) ‘that case’ as an unexplained adv. translated as ‘in this case’. It is likely that the reference to the cleric and his soul as two separate entities reflects the medieval notion of the separation of the soul of a dead person from his body.

kennings:

• meiðs mens — of the tree of the neck-ring [MAN]

grammar:

case: gen.