Note to Anon Líkn 26VII
[6] til alþingis ‘to the Althing’: This conception of the Last Judgement in terms of the Althing is apparently unique in ON. In an Icel. poem the term cannot but evoke the country’s general assembly, the highest court of the land, though in Norway the cpd has a less specific sense, simply ‘a general meeting’ (Fritzner). The Last Judgement is also characterised as a þing ‘assembly’ (not alþingi) in 27/1, Has 32/1, Líkn 27/1, Lil 72/1, and in the late medieval Píslardrápa 32/1, 34/1 (ÍM I.2, 62); cf. mót ‘meeting’ in the ONorw. Doomsday homily (HómNo, 101). In poetry, alþingi otherwise occurs only in HǫrðG Lv 7/2 (Harð 14)V, where it refers to the Icel. general assembly.
References
- Bibliography
- 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.
- HómNo = Indrebø, Gustav. 1931. Gamal norsk homiliebok, Cod. AM 619, 4°. Det norske historiske Kjeldeskrift Fond, Skrifter 54. Oslo: Dybwad. Rpt. 1966. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.
- ÍM = Jón Helgason, ed. 1936-8. Íslenzk miðaldarkvæði: Islandske digte fra senmiddelalderen. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
- Internal references
- George S. Tate (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Líknarbraut 27’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 257-8.
- Martin Chase (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Lilja 72’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 643-4.
- Katrina Attwood (ed.) 2007, ‘Gamli kanóki, Harmsól 32’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 100-1.
- Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2022, ‘Harðar saga 14 (Hǫrðr Grímkelsson, Lausavísur 7)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 937.