[7] dritmenni þitt ‘a shit like you’: The invective dritmenni is a hap. leg., as is ragmenni ‘cowardly wretches’ in l. 4 of the following stanza (Hálf 44). However, drit ‘shit, excrement’ is attested as a simplex (ONP: drit) and the cpd dritskegg ‘muck-beard’ expresses a similarly pejorative sense. The use of poss. þitt instead of the pers. pron. after a noun of abuse in direct address is idiomatic in Old Norse (cf. Fritzner: þinn; CVC: þinn, sense B). Þitt is extrametrical here, and is probably a later addition to the line.
References
- Bibliography
- CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
- 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.
- ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
- Internal references
- Hubert Seelow (ed.) 2017, ‘Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka 44 (Útsteinn Gunnlaðarson, Útsteinskviða 4)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 339.