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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Note to Anon Gyð 1VII

[3, 4] haukstiettar hyrmeiðar ‘fire-trees of the hawk’s path [ARM > GOLD > MEN]’: B is torn at this point, and only ‘h…stettar’ is certain. The 399a-bˣ copyist was able to read ‘hagstettar’ with certainty, although this is likely to be corrupt. Finnur Jónsson, followed by Kock, reconstructs to hafstéttar, which they take as gen. sg. of hafstétt, f., ‘sea-path’. Finnur construes this with hyrmeiðar ‘fire-trees’ to give the man-kenning hyrmeiðar hafstéttar ‘the trees of the fire of the path of the sea [SEA > GOLD > MEN]’. As a sea-kenning, however, hafstétt is tautologous and, indeed, no parallel or similar expressions are listed in LP. This edn follows Rydberg in adopting Sveinbjörn Egilsson’s suggestion (note to 444ˣ) that hagstéttar be treated as an error for haugstéttar, which normalises to haukstiettar, gen. sing. of f. haukstiett ‘hawk-path’, a kenning for the arm or hand. Although haukstiett is not itself attested elsewhere, there are several arm-kennings on the ‘land, path, way of the hawk’ model (see LP, 231-2; Meissner, 139).

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
  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.

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