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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Ólhv Frag 5III

Tarrin Wills (ed.) 2017, ‘Óláfr hvítaskáld Þórðarson, Fragments 5’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 305.

Óláfr hvítaskáld ÞórðarsonFragments
456

text and translation

Herr búask hvatt til snerru.

Herr búask hvatt til snerru.
 
‘The army prepare themselves keenly for battle.

notes and context

Cited as a second example of syllepsis, the first being Anon (TGT) 18 (see Context there for a definition). In this case a plural verb is used with a singular collective noun. Óláfr states (TGT 1927, 67): Þessi fígúra finz ok sjaldan í nórænum skáldskap ‘This figure is also seldom found in Norse poetry’.

The attribution of this fragment to Óláfr was initially based on the similarity with a supplementary example in the Ars Laureshamensis (CCCM 40A, 221), a citation of Virgil’s Aeneid Book 2, line 20, referring to the Trojan horse: uterumque armato milite complent ‘and they fill the belly with an armed soldier’. The explanation in the Ars Laureshamensis (cum non in utero equi erat unus, sed plures milites ‘since there was not one but more soldiers in the horse’s belly’) is also similar to Óláfr’s explanation (TGT 1927, 67): Herr eru margir menn þeir er til orrostu búaz ‘The army are many men who prepare themselves for battle’. This, however, provides a less satisfactory source than the section of the Doctrinale identified by Wellendorf (forthcoming). — The attribution of this fragment to Óláfr is based on the similarity with the corresponding text and example in the Doctrinale of Alexander of Villa Dei. The following has been identified by Wellendorf (forthcoming) as the source for this section of TGTCum collectivo iunctum plurale sylempsim | assignant aliqui: ‘plebs ista parant equitare’. | sed magis est propria constructio: ‘plebs parat ire’ (Reichling 1893, 164, ll. 2458-60) ‘Some assign [i.e. term it] sylempsis when a plural is connected with a collective: “this mass of people prepare itself to ride”. But a more proper construction is “the mass of people prepares to go” (Wellendorf [forthcoming]).

readings

sources

Text is based on reconstruction from the base text and variant apparatus and may contain alternative spellings and other normalisations not visible in the manuscript text. Transcriptions may not have been checked and should not be cited.

editions and texts

Skj: Anonyme digte og vers [XII], C. Vers om ubestemmelige personer og begivenheder 18: AI, 599, BI, 599, Skald I, 292, NN §§2125, 2991B; SnE 1818, 323, SnE 1848, 191, SnE 1848-87, II, 144-5, 418, TGT 1884, 23, 93, 205, TGT 1927, 67, 102.

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