[4]: The rhyme snœrð- : mærð does not involve identical vowels, and earlier scholars have therefore postulated a variant form mœrð (see LP: mærð; SnE 2007, 67), but there are no early examples of this rhyme (only here and in ESk Geisl 21/2VII, where the reading appears to be corrupt). Hence this could be an early manifestation of the change œ > æ or at least indicate an instability in the pronunciation of the vowel. That change is otherwise dated to shortly before 1250 (see ANG §120).
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.
- ANG = Noreen, Adolf. 1923. Altnordische Grammatik I: Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer. 1st edn. 1884. 5th unrev. edn. 1970. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
- SnE 2007 = Snorri Sturluson. 2007. Edda: Háttatal. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
- Internal references
- Martin Chase (ed.) 2007, ‘Einarr Skúlason, Geisli 21’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 24-5.