Note to Þul Skjaldar 3III
[4] bera (f.) ‘she-bear’: As a shield-heiti, the word is known from the name of Egill’s shield poem Berudrápa (Egill BerdrV (Eg 128)) and from Anon (SnE) 8/1: Baugr er á beru sœmstr ‘A ring is most seemly on a shield’. Bera also occurs once in the later rímur as a heiti for ‘shield’ (Finnur Jónsson 1926-8: bera). Because it is not possible to arrive at a linguistically satisfactory derivation of this word from the strong verb bera ‘carry’ (pace AEW: bera 2), the heiti is most likely identical with bera f. ‘she-bear’, and could have been the name of a specific shield. Whether this name referred to a bear-image drawn on the shield (so Falk 1914b, 146) cannot be ascertained. Cf. yrlygr ‘battler’ in l. 1 above.
References
- Bibliography
- Finnur Jónsson. 1926-8. Ordbog til de af samfund til udg. af gml. nord. litteratur udgivne Rímur samt til de af Dr. O. Jiriczek udgivne Bósarímur. SUGNL 51. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
- Falk, Hjalmar. 1914b. Altnordische Waffenkunde. Videnskapsselskapets skrifter, II. Hist.-filos. kl. 1914, 6. Kristiania (Oslo): Dybwad.
- Internal references
- Margaret Clunies Ross (forthcoming), ‘ Egill Skallagrímsson, Berudrápa’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1163> (accessed 24 April 2024)
- Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from Snorra Edda 8’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 518.
- Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2022, ‘Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar 128 (Egill Skallagrímsson, Berudrápa 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 380.