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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Note to KrákÁsl Lv 11VIII (RagnSon 1) (Kráka/Áslaug)

[5-6] blási … í spán at hánum ‘let … whistle for him’: Lit. ‘Let [birds of prey] blow into wood-shavings towards him’. The expression blása í spán at with dat. is of uncertain meaning, but is clearly idiomatic. Kock (NN §182) and the present ed. accept Finnur Jónsson’s understanding of this (in Skj B and in LP: spônn; cf. Hb 1892-6) as meaning ‘go without, wait in vain for’; Kock quotes (with its German and Dutch equivalents) the Modern English expression ‘whistle for’, understood in the sense of ‘seek or expect in vain’. Old Norse spánn m. has several meanings, including ‘wood-shavings, matchwood, spoon (what is left after the shavings have been removed (?)’ (LP: spônn). There is no need, as Kock (NN §1469B) indicates, to emend this 3rd pers. pres. subj. blási to indic. blása, as do Finnur Jónsson in Hb 1892-6 and Skj B and Guðni Jónsson in FSGJ.

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. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  4. 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.
  5. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
  6. Hb 1892-6 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1892-6. Hauksbók udgiven efter de Arnamagnæanske håndskrifter no. 371, 544 og 675, 4° samt forskellige papirshåndskrifter. Copenhagen: Det kongelige nordiske oldskrift-selskab.

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