Cookies on our website

We use cookies on this website, mainly to provide a secure browsing experience but also to collect statistics on how the website is used. You can find out more about the cookies we set, the information we store and how we use it on the cookies page.

Continue

skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

Menu Search

Note to StarkSt Vík 4VIII (Gautr 12)

[8] vetrum ‘winters’: Years were usually measured in winters rather than summers in early Scandinavia, as in other Germanic cultures. Sumrum may have been chosen here by some scribes out of a false belief that the alliteration of ll. 7-8 was on <s> rather than <n>. The age of twelve (9+3) was considered the age of adulthood in early Scandinavia, though later medieval sources place it at sixteen (cf. Grg Ib, 22; Dennis et al. 1980-2000, II, 46).

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. Dennis, Andrew et al., trans. 1980-2000. Laws of Early Iceland: Grágás I-II. 2 vols. The University of Manitoba Press Icelandic Studies 3 and 5. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press.
  3. Grg = Grágás.

Close

Log in

This service is only available to members of the relevant projects, and to purchasers of the skaldic volumes published by Brepols.
This service uses cookies. By logging in you agree to the use of cookies on your browser.

Close