Anon (FoGT) 21^III

‘Þá, er eg leyfi, mey mjóva,
— mær er þín — fyr vild sína’:
Hörn mælti það horna
hjörþings við bör kringinn.

‘Þá mjóva mey, er eg leyfi fyr vild sína; mær er þín’: {Hörn horna} mælti það við {kringinn bör {hjörþings}}.

‘That slim girl whom I praise for her goodwill; the girl is yours’: {the Hörn <= Freyja> of drinking horns} [WOMAN] said that to {the smart tree {of the sword-assembly}} [BATTLE > WARRIOR].

Mss: W(115) (FoGT)

Editions: Skj AII, 217, Skj BII, 234, Skald II, 121; SnE 1848-87, II, 218-19, III, 158, FoGT 1884, 135, 270-1, FoGT 2004, 44, 70, 124-5, FoGT 2014, 24-5, 104-5, FoGT 2014, 24-5, 104-5.

Context: Stanzas 21-2 illustrate the rhetorical figure of antiptosis (antitosus in FoGT). The author writes that this figure is characterised by the deliberate alteration of number, case or tense, and cites st. 21 as illustrating the substitution of an accusative for a nominative case.

Notes: [All]: Björn Magnússon Ólsen (FoGT 1884, 271) is almost certainly correct when he argues that the grammatical and syntactical construction of ll. 1-2 imitates a Latin construction like urbem quam statuo, vestra est ‘the city which I found is yours’ (Virgil, Aeneid I, 573), adapted by medieval grammarians like Évrard of Béthune (Wrobel 1887, 5, l. 40), following Donatus, to exemplify antiptosis. The Icelandic example here places þá mjóva mey ‘that slim girl’ in the same position as Lat. urbem ‘city’ (acc.) and then in the main clause has the alternative form of the noun mey, viz. mær er þín ‘the girl is yours’ in parallel with the Lat. nom. vestra [urbs] est. Evidently neither Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) nor Kock (Skald) understood how closely the Icelandic imitates the Latin here, because both eds emended W’s ‘þá er’ in l. 1 to þá. This gives the sense in ll. 1-2: ‘I praise that slim girl for her goodwill; the girl is yours’. However, there is no way that this emended construction can exemplify a change from acc. to nom. case of the noun mey/mær. — [1] leyfi ‘praise’: The rhyme with mjóva ‘slim’ shows that [f] in leyfi has been voiced in intervocalic position (cf. st. 37/7). — [2] fyr vild sína ‘for her goodwill’: This phrase can either be construed as part of a rel. clause, er eg leyfi fyr vild sína, as here, or with mær er þín, as Björn Magnússon Ólsen does (FoGT 1884, 270-1), understanding it to imply ‘of her own free will’.  Wellendorf (forthcoming) also supports this interpretation. The imagined scenario is presumably that of a woman giving a man permission to woo the girl, perhaps her daughter, in marriage. — [2] vild ‘goodwill’: Another long-stemmed noun in metrical position 4 in a D4-line (see Note to st. 15/1).

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. SnE 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. FoGT 1884 = Björn Magnússon Ólsen, ed. 1884. Den tredje og fjærde grammatiske afhandling i Snorres Edda tilligemed de grammatiske afhandlingers prolog og to andre tillæg. SUGNL 12. Copenhagen: Knudtzon.
6. FoGT 2004 = Longo, Michele, ed. [2004]. ‘Il Quarto Trattato Grammaticale Islandese: Testo, Traduzione e Commento’. Dottorato di Ricerca in ‘Linguistica Sincronica e Diacronica’ (XV Ciclo). Palermo: Università degli Studi di Palermo, Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia.
7. Wrobel, I., ed. 1887. Eberhardi Bethuniensis Graecismus. Corpus grammaticorum medii aeui I. Bratislava: G. Koebner.
8. FoGT 2014 = Clunies Ross, Margaret and Jonas Wellendorf, eds. 2014. The Fourth Grammatical Treatise. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
9. Internal references
10. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, The Fourth Grammatical Treatise’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=34> (accessed 24 April 2024)