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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Note to ÞjJ Lv 1VIII (ÞJ 1)

[8] gyggvir ‘quail’: This uncommon verb (cf. LP: gyggva) is often used in an impersonal construction with the agent of the action in the dat. to mean ‘be frightened, startled’; cf. Anon Mhkv 22/6III and Note there, where the proverbial hykk, at gyggvi sjaldan vǫrum ‘I think the wary man is seldom startled’ probably expresses the underlying idea here too. The agent has been omitted here, but it is reasonable to assume that the person who is at risk of quailing is one and the same as the speaker of the stanza, who is concerned about the outcome should his nerve fail him.

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. Internal references
  4. Roberta Frank (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Poems, Málsháttakvæði 22’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1236.

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