[5] vindbýsna ‘the wind-portents [storm]’: Eggert Ó. Brím (1895, 25) interprets this to mean ‘culmination of the storm’; see also Finnur Jónsson (1884, 60). LP: vindbýsn (following in part Konráð Gíslason 1892, 48) explains that it means ‘wind-sign’, i.e. ‘sign that the wind is at its fiercest (and will soon abate)’. This may be right, but there is stronger precedent for the meaning if we associate the word with býsnaveðr ‘portentous weather’ (see CVC: býsn) and assume a similar meaning. It makes better sense, too, for Þjóðólfr to warn against departing if the weather is portentous than if the storm is about to abate.
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.
- CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
- Finnur Jónsson. 1884. Kritiske studier over en del af de ældste norske og islandske skjaldekvad. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
- Konráð Gíslason, ed. 1892a. Udvalg af oldnordiske skjaldekvad, med anmærkninger. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
- Eggert Ó. Brím. 1895. ‘Bemærkninger angående en del vers i “Noregs konungasögur” (Reykjavík 1892)’. ANF 11, 1-32.