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 Bragi Rdr 4III

[1, 2] of set … á golfi ‘over the bench … on the floor’: The words set and golf denote two distinct parts of the early Scandinavian hall. Set was the raised area along the walls, where benches were set up for people to sit on and cleared at night for sleeping, whereas the golf was the central part of the hall floor, around the hearth. Bragi seems to imply that Hamðir and Sǫrli attacked Jǫrmunrekkr on the set (where he may have been asleep or drunk), and threw his limbs onto the golf where everyone could see them (cf. Hamð 24/7-10 and Saxo 2005, I, 8, 10, 14, pp. 552-5). Skj B and Skald emend all mss’ á golfi to í golfi, but this is not necessary to get good sense.

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  3. Saxo 2005 = Friis-Jensen, Karsten, ed. 2005. Saxo Grammaticus: Gesta Danorum / Danmarkshistorien. Trans. Peter Zeeberg. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Det danske sprog- og litteraturselskab & Gads forlag.
  4. Internal references
  5. Not published: do not cite ()

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