[5] sigrunnar ‘battle-trees [WARRIORS]’: Terms for ‘battle’ are common as determinants of warrior-kennings. The reading sigrrunnar ‘victory-trees’ in Kˣ and other mss is also possible. The etymological and semantic relationship between sig n. ‘battle’ and sigr ‘victory’ is somewhat uncertain (see LP: sig, sigr; AEW: sig 2, sigr), and it is particularly difficult to distinguish between the two in compounds (cf. CVC: sig n. [sigr], and see Note to Sigv Ást 1/4 sigrhvatastr).
References
- Bibliography
- AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
- LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
- CVC = Cleasby, Richard, Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and W. A. Craigie. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon.
- Internal references
- Judith Jesch (ed.) 2012, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Poem about Queen Ástríðr 1’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 646.