Note to Þloft Glækv 3I
[7] kykvasettr ‘enshrined alive’: Kykr and kvikr ‘alive, living’ are variant forms (Fritzner, CVC: kvikr); kvikr appears at st. 5/6. As can be seen from the Readings, the cpd kykvasettr posed problems for scribes. It is a p. p. from kviksetja ‘to place alive, bury alive’ (Fritzner: kviksetja), but it refers here to a Christian saint who lives on in the grave; cf. also Þstf Stuttdr 6/4II kviksettra (with gen. pl. ‑ra by emendation) ‘holy ones’ and Note. Here the meaning appears to be that Óláfr has been placed in a shrine in the church, but as a saint he is still alive (kykva), as witnessed by the miraculous growth of his hair and nails (st. 5). For discussion of the term see Magerøy (1948, 21) and Rainford (1995, 111). Kock (NN §965; Skald) prints instead kykvasætr, a proposed cpd noun meaning ‘living seat’, referring to the saint’s shrine and its contents, in support of a rather forced interpretation of Þstf Stuttdr 6/4II .
References
- Bibliography
- Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
- Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
- Rainford, Jessica. 1995. ‘Óláfr Haraldsson, King and Saint of Norway, and the Development of Skaldic Style (ca.1015-ca.1153)’. D. Phil. thesis. University of Oxford.
- Magerøy, Hallvard, ed. 1948. Glælognskviða av Toraren Lovtunge. Bidrag til nordisk filologi av stederende ved Universitet i Oslo 12. Oslo: Aschehoug.
- Internal references
- Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Þórarinn stuttfeldr, Stuttfeldardrápa 6’ 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, pp. 477-8.