[3] bellir ‘presses’: This is the weak verb bella ‘to deal, display, use’, which most often takes an object (in the dat.) referring to negative entities such as treachery or force; the strong bella normally means ‘hurt, harm, affect’, with dat. of the person affected (CVC, Fritzner, AEW: bella; also NN §2218A). The present instance seems to combine aspects of both usages. There is no explicit object, but from the context, including mér ‘for myself’ in l. 4 and the second reference to elli ‘old age’ in l. 8, it is clear that the skald has his own advancing age in mind.
References
- Bibliography
- NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
- CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
- Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.