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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Note to Hfr ErfÓl 15I

[7] sléttan ‘smooth’: Sléttan, m. acc. sg. agreeing with the poetry-kenning based on sylg ‘drink’, is here taken as the adj. used attributively. It could otherwise be taken as predicative, hence ‘make (the poetry) smooth’, or else as the p. p. of slétta ‘to smoothe’, cf. slétta óð ‘smoothe a poem’, ESk Geisl 50/3VII. This is the earliest surviving example in the skaldic corpus of sléttr ‘smooth, smoothed’ applied to poetry, a very common metaphor in C12th and later, especially Christian, poetry.

References

  1. Internal references
  2. Martin Chase (ed.) 2007, ‘Einarr Skúlason, Geisli 50’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 48.

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