Anon (SnE) 8III
Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from Snorra Edda 8’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 518.
notes
[1] baugr ‘a ring’: This most likely denotes the shield-rim, and it is frequently used as a heiti for ‘shield’. See Note to Þul Skjaldar 3/3.
es ‘is’
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2. vera (verb): be, is, was, were, are, am
á ‘on’
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3. á (prep.): on, at
beru ‘a shield’
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1. bera (noun f.; °-u): she-bear, shield
notes
[1] beru ‘a shield’: This is another heiti for ‘shield’ given in Þul Skjaldar 3/4 (see Note there).
sœmstr ‘most seemly’
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sœmr (adj.): fitting
en ‘and’
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2. en (conj.): but, and
á ‘on’
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3. á (prep.): on, at
boga ‘a bow’
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bogi (noun m.; °-a; -ar): bow
ǫrvar ‘arrows’
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ǫr (noun f.; °dat. -/-u; ǫrvar/ǫrar): arrow
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
The couplet is cited among stanzas illustrating kennings for ‘shield’ and baugr ‘ring’ as a part of the shield.
As Kock (NN §85) points out, the couplet belongs to the gnomic poetic tradition, and these two lines have close parallels in the Old English Maxims (Krapp and Dobbie 1936, 162; Dobbie 1942, 56): Maxims I 153a boga sceal stræle ‘a bow belongs to an arrow’; Maxims II 37b Rand sceal on scylde ‘A rim belongs on a shield’.
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