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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Note to Anon (LaufE) 4III

[3] hjálmklæðum ‘to helmet-clothes’: It is unclear what is meant here. Finnur Jónsson (LP: hjalmklæði) tentatively suggests that it may refer to a woman’s headdresses, in the sense that she uses them frequently (so also Skj B) or, alternatively, that hjálm could be related to Norw.(?) hjelm ‘appearance’. The word is otherwise attested once in the corpus of Old Norse prose, but the meaning is uncertain. Fritzner: hjalmklæði suggests noget til en Kirkes Inventarium henhørende, uvist hvilket ‘something that belongs to the inventory of a church, exactly what is unknown’, and Heggstad et al. 2008: hjalmklæði speculate that it could have been a protective cloth that was used to cover a chandelier (kertihjálmr). If that is correct, the word could have been chosen here because of its ambiguity.

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.

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