Note to Anon Mey 5VII
[All]: This st. uses a variety of the echoing verse-form that Snorri Sturluson in Ht called iðurmælt ‘repeatedly said’ (SnE 1999, 22). Here the stressed syllable of the final word in l. 1 is repeated (though in a cognate, not the same, word) at the beginning of l. 2; l. 2’s aðalhending changes the stem while maintaining the rhyme, and the new lexeme begins l. 3; this format is repeated through the rest of the st., employing four rhymes in all. Note also that the st. comprises four apposed couplets, allowing the word-play, a type of adnominatio, to suggest a rapid sequence of significant events. This rhetorical ornamentation, which is very like some of the devices employed by the poet of Lil (cf. Foote 1982, 260-3), doubtless reflects the emotional intensity associated with the common medieval motif of Mary standing weeping at the foot of Christ’s Cross. See st. 36, whose subject is S. Margaret, for a similar display.
References
- Bibliography
- Foote, Peter G. 1982. ‘Latin Rhetoric and Icelandic Poetry: Some Contacts’. Saga och sed, 107-27. Rpt. in Foote 1984a, 249-70.
- SnE 1999 = Snorri Sturluson. 1999. Edda: Háttatal. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. Rpt. with addenda and corrigenda. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
- Internal references
- (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Háttatal’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=165> (accessed 20 April 2024)
- Martin Chase 2007, ‘ Anonymous, Lilja’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 544-677. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1185> (accessed 20 April 2024)