Note to Bragi Frag 4III
[2] lung ‘the longship’: Here presumed to be the base-word of a horse-kenning. From Lat. [navis] longa, probably via OIr. long (Falk 1912, 89; Jesch 2001a, 123; see also Note to Þul Skipa 2/7). Lungr occurs as a horse-name in Anon Þorgþ I 1/7 and Þul Hesta 2/4 and (possibly) in an obscure fragment attributed to Egill Skallagrímsson (Egill Frag), cited in TGT (TGT 1884, 86) in the same chapter as Bragi’s couplet (it also includes a reference to Gungnir). Horse-kennings are rare in skaldic poetry, the only comparable example being Sigv Frag 2/3 knǫrr rastar ‘the ship of the league’. Both these kennings invert the common metaphor ‘horse of the sea’ for ‘ship’; see Note to Sigv Frag 2/3.
References
- Bibliography
- TGT 1884 = Björn Magnússon Ólsen, ed. 1884. Den tredje og fjærde grammatiske afhandling i Snorres Edda tilligemed de grammatiske afhandlingers prolog og to andre tillæg. SUGNL 12. Copenhagen: Knudtzon.
- Jesch, Judith. 2001a. Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age: The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse. Woodbridge: Boydell.
- Falk, Hjalmar. 1912. Altnordisches Seewesen. Wörter und Sachen 4. Heidelberg: Winter.
- Internal references
- (forthcoming), ‘ Óláfr hvítaskáld Þórðarson, The Third Grammatical Treatise’ in Tarrin Wills (ed.), The Third Grammatical Treatise. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=32> (accessed 19 April 2024)
- Not published: do not cite (EgillV)
- Margaret Clunies Ross 2017, ‘ Egill Skallagrímsson, Fragment’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 66. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1168> (accessed 19 April 2024)
- Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Hesta heiti 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 936.
- Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Skipa heiti 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 863.
- Diana Whaley (ed.) 2017, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Fragments 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 349.