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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Note to Bragi Rdr 4III

[7-8] á laufi runna landa Leifa ‘on the leaf of the trees of the lands of Leifi <sea-king> [SEA > SHIPS > SHIELD]’: A three-part kenning for the shield, painted (or otherwise decorated) with a picture of the assault upon Jǫrmunrekkr that Bragi replicates in the word-picture of this stanza. Just as in st. 1, where a shield is compared to a leaf (blað), so here the comparison is with a bright, living thing, the leaf of the kind of tree that ‘grows’ in the lands of the sea-king Leifi, namely a Viking-Age ship, on which shields were hung in rows along the gunwale. In this kenning there is a metaphorical connection betweeṇ all three of its elements (cf. Meissner 171; Marold 1993b, 297-8).

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
  3. Marold, Edith. 1993b. ‘Nýgerving und Nykrat’. In Nielsen et al. 1993, 283-302.

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