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 Gamlkan Jóndr 2VII

[8] hreina ‘(gen. pl.) of reindeer’: The ms. reading is hreinir, which would be nom. pl. of the adj. hreinn ‘pure’. The subject of the sentence is evidently an extended (rekit) man-kenning whose base-word is a term for ‘tree’ (þollar ‘fir-trees’). The last part of the determinant is clearly itself a kenning for ‘sea’ (humra naust ‘boat-house of lobsters’). Since a man-kenning ‘tree of the sea’ would be without parallel, all eds follow Bugge and emend hreinir to hreina (gen. pl. of hreinn ‘reindeer’; Bugge 1874, 934 nn. 1 and 4). This yields a man-kenning of the type ‘tree of the ship’ (cf. Meissner, 278).

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
  3. Bugge, Sophus, ed. 1874. ‘Anmærkingar ved de til Jons saga IV henhørende viser’. In Unger 1874, 932-6.

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