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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Refr Frag 2III

Edith Marold (ed.) 2017, ‘Hofgarða-Refr Gestsson, Fragments 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. 261.

Hofgarða-Refr GestssonFragments
123

introduction

This couplet (Refr Frag 2) is preserved only in LaufE (mss papp10ˣ (main ms.), 2368ˣ and 743ˣ).

text and translation

Soðs ok síðra heðna;
sundr fœrir tré Grundi.

… soðs ok síðra heðna; Grundi fœrir sundr tré.
 
‘… of broth and of long furs; Grundi splits wood asunder.

notes and context

The couplet is cited in LaufE to illustrate how tré ‘wood’ can come to mean ullarflóki ‘felted wool’ through substitution by a long series of homonyms and synonyms.

The prose context does not contribute much to the interpretation of the couplet, because it consists of a long, consecutive string of substitutions of homonyms and synonyms intended to demonstrate that ullarflóki ‘felted wool’ can replace tré ‘wood’. This substitution process is called rekit ‘extended’ in LaufE, which, however, is incompatible with the way the word rekit is used in Snorri’s Ht (SnE 2007, 5), where the term denotes multisegmental kennings. Thus according to the chain of replacements, Grundi is supposed to be plucking apart a knot of wool rather than chopping wood, as the text appears to say at first glance. This extreme use of substitution by synonyms and homonyms, however, seems to be more of a language affectation of the late Middle Ages than something that could contribute to an understanding of these two lines by Refr.

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: Hofgarða-Refr Gestsson, 5. Af ubestemmelige digte el. vers 2: AI, 321, BI, 297, Skald I, 151, NN §844G; SnE 1848-87, II, 632, III, 201, LaufE 1979, 294, 377.

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