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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Note to Ólsv Kristdr 2III

[4] merkja ‘to mark’: Merkja is taken here (with SnE 1848-87 and Skj B) as a verb (‘mark’). Kock (NN §1333) treats this as a noun ‘of the stars’, gen. pl., qualifying aldir (aldir merkja ‘the ages of the stars’). According to that interpretation, the first clause would be construed as gaft tungl, talið dœgr, megin lœgis, aldir merkja ‘you gave celestial bodies, the number of days and nights, the power of the sea, the ages of the stars’. Aside from the fact that it is difficult to see what ‘(you gave) the ages of the stars’ would mean, it is out of keeping with Old Norse cosmology, which was very much preoccupied with computation (see Note to [All] above, as well as Clunies Ross and Gade 2012).

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. SnE 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
  4. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.

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