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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Note to KormǪ Sigdr 3III

[3] breyti ‘the arranger’: Line 3 of this helmingr is difficult and has prompted extensive discussion. This is an A2-line, in which a sentence boundary falling between breyti and hún would be unusual (cf. Kuhn 1983, 137-40; Gade 1995a, 166-7). Because of the semantic and syntactic problems (see below) this edn takes breyti and hún as two separate words and not as a cpd despite the fact that this violates metrical rules. Breyti ‘the arranger’ belongs to the poet-kenning, and hún ‘top of the mast’ is the object of bindr ‘binds’ in the rel. clause (cf. SnE 1848-87, I, 236-7; Finnur Jónsson 1931,110; Skj B; Reichardt 1928, 181-2; NN §261). Some scholars (Mohr 1933, 88; Wood 1959a, 309) choose a cpd breytihún as a base-word in the poet-kenning, which would be metrically correct. However, the interpretation of such a cpd is difficult because húnn has several meanings: ‘young man’; ‘small bear’; ‘piece in a board game’; ‘mast-head’ (possibly pars pro toto for ‘mast’). In principle, each meaning might fit here. According to Mohr (1933, 88 n. 37) and Kock (NN §2501B), the poet is calling himself ‘little bear’; Wood (1959a, 309) translates húnn as ‘young one’. In addition to these semantic problems, the rel. clause sás bindr beinan lit. ‘who binds smooth/straight’ is left without an object, which must be supplied from the main clause (ennidúki ‘headband’, l. 1) (Mohr loc. cit.).

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.
  5. Gade, Kari Ellen. 1995a. The Structure of Old Norse dróttkvætt Poetry. Islandica 49. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
  6. Kuhn, Hans (1899). 1983. Das Dróttkvætt. Heidelberg: Winter.
  7. Mohr, Wolfgang. 1933. Kenningstudien. Beiträge zur Stilgeschichte der altgermanischen Dichtung. Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer.
  8. Reichardt, Konstantin. 1928. Studien zu den Skalden des 9. und 10. Jahrhunderts. Palaestra 159. Leipzig: Mayer & Müller.
  9. Finnur Jónsson. 1931. ‘Kormákr Ögmundarson’. ÅNOH, 107-206.
  10. Wood, Cecil. 1959a. ‘Kormak’s stanzas called the Sigurðardrápa’. Neophilologus 43, 305-19.
  11. Internal references
  12. Not published: do not cite ()

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