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 Útsteinn Útkv 9VIII (Hálf 50)

[5-8]: Útsteinn here expresses two commonplaces of Old Norse heroic poetry, that, as a man of courage, he has a hard heart (cf. Note to Anon Mhkv 7/1III and von See 1978), and that Óðinn, the Norse god most frequently associated with warfare, has promoted his warlike nature. Finnur Jónsson (LP: fremja 7) has suggested that mér ‘for me’ (l. 7) might be a mistake for mik ‘me’ (acc.) and that the sense of ll. 7-8 might be ‘since Óðinn furthered me in my youth’, as this would conform more closely to ideas that Óðinn helped and supported his chosen warriors, rather than strengthened their hearts, a notion that is not attested elsewhere.

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. 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.
  3. See, Klaus von. 1978. ‘Das Herz in Edda und Skaldendichtung’. skandinavistik 8, 16-26. Rpt. in von See 1981a, 73-83.
  4. Internal references
  5. Roberta Frank (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Poems, Málsháttakvæði 7’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1221.

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