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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Note to Anon Lil 11VII

[1] guð breytti og brá hætti til ‘God transformed and changed his behaviour’: The reading here follows Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) and most other eds: according to LP the idiom bregða hætti til means to change one’s way of proceeding, but this is not attested by any other dictionary. Bregða occurs with a variety of prepositions and adverbials, but idioms with til always have a gen. object and hætti is dat. sg. Bregða e-u til e-s can mean ‘to change one thing into or make equal with another’ (Fritzner: bregða til e-s), and breyta (til) can mean ‘to vary, alternate, arrange elegantly’ (ONP: breyta 3; Sigfús Blöndal 1920-4: breyta 1). Kock disputes that háttr can mean ‘way of proceeding’ (so Skj B fremgangsmåde) and argues that it rather means ‘condition, type, nature’. However, it is well attested in the sense ‘manner of behaviour, characteristic behaviour’ (see SnSt Ht 37/5 and 89/5III). Kock translates ‘God changed and re-made nature: blood and flesh from water and earth’ (NN §3390).

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. Sigfús Blöndal. 1920-4. Islandsk-dansk ordbog / Íslensk-dönsk orðabók. Reykjavík, Copenhagen and Kristiania (Oslo): Verslun Þórarins B. Þorlákssonar / Aschehoug.
  6. 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.
  7. ONP = Degnbol, Helle et al., eds. 1989-. A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose / Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. 1-. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission.
  8. Internal references
  9. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Snorri Sturluson, Háttatal 37’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1145.

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