Note to Anon Líkn 12VII
[3] heiða tjalds ‘of heaths’ tent [SKY/HEAVEN]’: This is the poem’s first use of tjald ‘tent’ in a heaven-kenning extended as a tvíkennt kenning for God or Christ; cf. 24/5-7 fróns tjald ‘earth’s tent’, 25/4 heiðtjald ‘heath-tent’, 50/8 veðra tjald ‘winds’ canopy’. The greatest concentration of this kenning type occurs in Christian poetry and especially in Líkn’s model Has 1/2, 10/4, 14/6-8, 20/2, 28/2, 31/3, 41/4, 44/5-6, and 65/6. Such kennings may be informed by the biblical idea of the heavens as a tabernacle; see Isa. XL.22 qui extendit velut nihilum caelos et expandit eos sicut tabernaculum ad inhabitandum ‘he that stretcheth out the heavens as nothing and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in’. (With respect to God’s ‘stretching out the heavens’ see -spennandi ‘who spans [the heavens]’ 9/2.) See Eisler 1910, II for comparative discussion of the Himmelszelt ‘tent of heaven’ in ancient cultures.
References
- Bibliography
- Eisler, Robert. 1910. Weltenmantel und Himmelszelt: Religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen zur Uhrgeschichte des antiken Weltbildes. 2 vols. Munich: Beck.
- Internal references
- George S. Tate 2007, ‘ Anonymous, Líknarbraut’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 228-86. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1024> (accessed 19 April 2024)
- Katrina Attwood (ed.) 2007, ‘Gamli kanóki, Harmsól 1’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 73-4.