Cookies on our website

We use cookies on this website, mainly to provide a secure browsing experience but also to collect statistics on how the website is used. You can find out more about the cookies we set, the information we store and how we use it on the cookies page.

Continue

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

Menu Search

Close

Anon (TGT) 2^III

Tarrin Wills (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from the Third Grammatical Treatise 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 538.

Anonymous Lausavísur Stanzas from the Third Grammatical Treatise

Svanr ‘The swan’

(not checked:)
svanr (noun m.; °-s; -ir): swan

kennings

Svanr blóðs
‘The swan of blood ’
= RAVEN/EAGLE
The swan of blood → RAVEN/EAGLE

þyrr ‘rushes’

(not checked:)
þyrja (verb): race, rush, rage

beint ‘straight’

(not checked:)
2. beinn (adj.; °beinan; compar. beinni, superl. beinastr/beinstr): straight

til ‘to’

(not checked:)
til (prep.): to

benja ‘the wounds’

(not checked:)
1. ben (noun f.; °-jar, dat. -; -jar , gen. -a(var. EiðKrC 402¹³: AM 77 4° D)): wound

blóðs ‘of blood’

(not checked:)
blóð (noun n.; °-s): blood

[2] blóðs: corrected from ‘blioðs’ A(3v)

kennings

Svanr blóðs
‘The swan of blood ’
= RAVEN/EAGLE
The swan of blood → RAVEN/EAGLE

vind ‘of wind’

(not checked:)
1. vindr (noun m.; °-s/-ar; -ar): wind < vindár (noun f.)

kennings

róðri vindára
‘the rowing of wind-oars ’
= FLIGHT
wind-oars → WINGS
the rowing of WINGS → FLIGHT

notes

[2] vindára ‘of wind-oars [WINGS]’: The context here suggests the referent ‘wings’ for this kenning, but it may more properly refer to feathers: a similar kenning occurs in an inscription from Lund (Bone piece 4: Run DRTil5^VI; cf. Moltke 1985, 460), which contains the sentence arar ara æru fiaþrar ‘the eagle’s oars are feathers’.

vind ‘of wind’

(not checked:)
1. vindr (noun m.; °-s/-ar; -ar): wind < vindár (noun f.)

kennings

róðri vindára
‘the rowing of wind-oars ’
= FLIGHT
wind-oars → WINGS
the rowing of WINGS → FLIGHT

notes

[2] vindára ‘of wind-oars [WINGS]’: The context here suggests the referent ‘wings’ for this kenning, but it may more properly refer to feathers: a similar kenning occurs in an inscription from Lund (Bone piece 4: Run DRTil5^VI; cf. Moltke 1985, 460), which contains the sentence arar ara æru fiaþrar ‘the eagle’s oars are feathers’.

ára ‘oars’

(not checked:)
1. ár (noun f.; °-ar, dat. u/-; -ar/-ir(LandslBorg 151b²¹)): oar < vindár (noun f.)

kennings

róðri vindára
‘the rowing of wind-oars ’
= FLIGHT
wind-oars → WINGS
the rowing of WINGS → FLIGHT

notes

[2] vindára ‘of wind-oars [WINGS]’: The context here suggests the referent ‘wings’ for this kenning, but it may more properly refer to feathers: a similar kenning occurs in an inscription from Lund (Bone piece 4: Run DRTil5^VI; cf. Moltke 1985, 460), which contains the sentence arar ara æru fiaþrar ‘the eagle’s oars are feathers’.

ára ‘oars’

(not checked:)
1. ár (noun f.; °-ar, dat. u/-; -ar/-ir(LandslBorg 151b²¹)): oar < vindár (noun f.)

kennings

róðri vindára
‘the rowing of wind-oars ’
= FLIGHT
wind-oars → WINGS
the rowing of WINGS → FLIGHT

notes

[2] vindára ‘of wind-oars [WINGS]’: The context here suggests the referent ‘wings’ for this kenning, but it may more properly refer to feathers: a similar kenning occurs in an inscription from Lund (Bone piece 4: Run DRTil5^VI; cf. Moltke 1985, 460), which contains the sentence arar ara æru fiaþrar ‘the eagle’s oars are feathers’.

róðri ‘the rowing’

(not checked:)
róðr (noun m.; °róðrar, dat. róðri, acc. róðr/róð(BǫglEirsp 458²⁴)): rowing-district, levy

kennings

róðri vindára
‘the rowing of wind-oars ’
= FLIGHT
wind-oars → WINGS
the rowing of WINGS → FLIGHT

Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses

Cited as an example of barbarismus in the form of a shortened vowel (stundar afdráttr ‘reduction of [vowel] length’) for metrical and aesthetic purposes. The second line is cited again for its shortened vowel in the section on metaplasmus, illustrating the same phenomenon under the classical term systole (‘sistola’; TGT 1927, 63): Sistola gerir langa samstǫfu skamma sem fyrr er ritat ‘Systole makes a long syllable short as was written earlier’.

The rhetorical figure exemplified here is realised in the second syllable of vindára, which is pronounced with a short vowel (TGT 1927, 44): Hér er vindara sett fyrir vindára róðri þat er flugr. Þessi samstafa er skǫmm gǫr fyrir fegrðar sakir, þvíat þá hljóðar betr ‘Here vindara is used instead of vindára róðri, that is, flight. This syllable is made short for the sake of beauty, because it sounds better’. It is not immediately clear why an even line of Type D2 (with a short syllable in metrical position 3) should be more pleasing to the ear than a Type D1-line (with a long syllable in metrical position 3), because both types are attested in dróttkvætt poetry. It could be that the long syllable with secondary stress was perceived to be too heavy (see Sievers 1893, 104 Anm. 4; Kuhn 1983, 147, 165).

log in home page info previous up a level next archive and create persistent link on archive.org

© Skaldic Project Academic Body and Brepols, unless otherwise noted. Database structure and interface developed by Tarrin Wills. All users of material on this database are reminded that its content may be either subject to copyright restrictions or is the property of the custodians of linked databases that have given permission for members of the skaldic project to use their material for research purposes. Those users who have been given access to as yet unpublished material are further reminded that they may not use, publish or otherwise manipulate such material except with the express permission of the individual editor of the material in question and the General Editor of the volume in which the material is to be published. Applications for permission to use such material should be made in the first instance to the General Editor of the volume in question. All information that appears in the published volumes has been thoroughly reviewed. If you believe some information here is incorrect please contact Tarrin Wills with full details.

Close

Stanza/chapter/text segment

Use the buttons at the top of the page to navigate between stanzas in a poem.

Information tab

text: if the stanza has been published, the edited text of the stanza and translation are here; if it hasn't been published an old edition (usually Skj) is given for reference
sources: a list of the manuscripts or inscriptions containing this stanza, with page and line references and links (eye button) to images where available, and transcription where available
readings: a list of variant manuscript readings of words in the main text
editions and texts: a list of editions of the stanza with links to the bibliography; and a list of prose works in which the stanza occurs, allowing you to navigate within the prose context
notes and context: notes not linked to individual words are given here, along with the account of the prose context for the stanza, where relevant

Interactive tab

The text and translation are given here, with buttons to toggle whether the text is shown in the verse order or prose word order. Clicking on indiviudal words gives dictionary links, variant readings, kennings and notes, where relevant.

Full text tab

This is the text of the edition in a similar format to how the edition appears in the printed volumes.

Chapter/text segment

This view is also used for chapters and other text segments. Not all the headings shown are relevant to such sections.