Note to Arn Hryn 3II
[4] í fljótu kvæði ‘in a swift poem’: Kreutzer (1977, 58-9) notes that Arnórr is the first skald to use the word kvæði (here and in st. 14 below), older skalds having preferred the more elevated, specifically poetic, bragr and óðr. The epithet fljótr ‘swift’ would be apt if hrynhent poetry had a faster tempo than dróttkvætt (Heusler 1925-9, I, 304), or it could refer to its tendency to fall into a regular trochaic pulse. Kreutzer (1977, 206) seems instead to link this with the comments of other (mainly later) skalds on their swiftness in composing, e.g. Egill in Arkv 1V.
References
- Bibliography
- Kreutzer, Gert. 1977. Die Dichtungslehre der Skalden: Poetologische Terminologie und Autorenkommentare als Grundlage einer Gattungspoetik. 2nd edn. Hochschulschriften: Literaturwissenschaft 1. Meisenheim am Glan: Hain.
- Heusler, Andreas. 1925-9. Deutsche Versgeschichte mit Einschluß des altenglischen und altnordischen Stabreimverses. Grundriß der germanischen Philologie 8. 3 vols. Berlin and Leipzig: de Gruyter.
- Internal references
- Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2022, ‘Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar 97 (Egill Skallagrímsson, Arinbjarnarkviða 1)’ 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. 333.