Note to Þsvart Lv 1II
[8] Akrsborg ‘Acre’: Taken here as f. acc. sg. ((á) Akrsborg) and as a parallel construction to á vǫrtu ‘towards the gate’ (l. 7). Both Skj B and Skald emend to Akrsborgar (f. gen. sg. with ms. 762ˣ; see Introduction to Lv above), which they construe with úrga vǫrtu (‘the wet gate of Acre’). According to that interpretation (which has no support in the main ms. witnesses), fríamorgin ‘Friday morning’ is treated as a trisyllabic cpd (frjámorgin) rather than occupying four metrical positions (fríamorgin) (see ANG §134.2), which would be a very early example of such a contracted hiatus word. Finnbogi Guðmundsson (ÍF 34) retains the form Akrsborg, which he takes as a dat. sg. (poss. dat.). While that construction may not be impossible, it is unlikely, because poss. dat. usually occurs with body parts, pieces of clothing etc. (see NS §100 Anm. 3). Alternatively, Akrsborg could be taken as a (rare) locative dat. (‘in Acre’; cf. NS §117). For Akrsborg ‘Acre’, see also ESk Sigdr I 3/8 and Note.
References
- Bibliography
- Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
- Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- ANG = Noreen, Adolf. 1923. Altnordische Grammatik I: Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen. 4th edn. Halle: Niemeyer. 1st edn. 1884. 5th unrev. edn. 1970. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
- NS = Nygaard, Marius. 1906. Norrøn syntax. Kristiania (Oslo): Aschehoug. Rpt. 1966.
- ÍF 34 = Orkneyinga saga. Ed. Finnbogi Guðmundsson. 1965.
- Internal references
- Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Einarr Skúlason, Sigurðardrápa I 3’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 540.