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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Anon (FoGT) 29^III

Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from the Fourth Grammatical Treatise 29’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 605.

Anonymous Lausavísur Stanzas from the Fourth Grammatical Treatise

Mætum ‘the excellent’

(not checked:)
mætr (adj.; °compar. -ri/-ari, superl. -astr): honoured, respected

kennings

mætum mensveigjanda;
‘the excellent necklace-distributor; ’
= GENEROUS MAN
the excellent necklace-distributor; → GENEROUS MAN

stend ‘stand’

(not checked:)
standa (verb): stand

eg ‘I’

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ek (pron.; °mín, dat. mér, acc. mik): I, me

að ‘’

(not checked:)
3. at (prep.): at, to

móti ‘opposed to’

(not checked:)
móti (prep.): against

men ‘necklace’

(not checked:)
2. men (noun n.; °; dat. menjum): neck-ring < mensveigjandi (noun m.)

[2] men‑: ‘man’ W

kennings

mætum mensveigjanda;
‘the excellent necklace-distributor; ’
= GENEROUS MAN
the excellent necklace-distributor; → GENEROUS MAN

notes

[2] mensveigjanda ‘necklace-distributor [GENEROUS MAN]’: The emendation men- ‘necklace’ from W’s ‘man’ was first proposed by Björn Magnússon Ólsen (FoGT 1884, 279-80) and has been adopted by all subsequent eds. Man might mean a female slave, though this sense would be inappropriate in context. SnE 1848-87, III, 160 proposed the meaning ‘horse’ (from manr adj. ‘maned one’, only in Akv 29/2), but this sense of the cpd cannot be paralleled.

sveigjanda ‘distributor’

(not checked:)
sveigjandi (noun m.): distributor, bender < mensveigjandi (noun m.)

kennings

mætum mensveigjanda;
‘the excellent necklace-distributor; ’
= GENEROUS MAN
the excellent necklace-distributor; → GENEROUS MAN

notes

[2] mensveigjanda ‘necklace-distributor [GENEROUS MAN]’: The emendation men- ‘necklace’ from W’s ‘man’ was first proposed by Björn Magnússon Ólsen (FoGT 1884, 279-80) and has been adopted by all subsequent eds. Man might mean a female slave, though this sense would be inappropriate in context. SnE 1848-87, III, 160 proposed the meaning ‘horse’ (from manr adj. ‘maned one’, only in Akv 29/2), but this sense of the cpd cannot be paralleled.

eigi ‘not’

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3. eigi (adv.): not

rís ‘oppose’

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rísa (verb): rise, raise

eg ‘I’

(not checked:)
ek (pron.; °mín, dat. mér, acc. mik): I, me

við ‘’

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2. við (prep.): with, against

Ránar ‘of Rán’

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Rán (noun f.): Rán

kennings

flærðarkunnum runni eisu Ránar.
‘the notoriously deceitful tree of the fire of Rán. ’
= MAN
the fire of Rán. → GOLD
the notoriously deceitful tree of the GOLD → MAN

Ránar ‘of Rán’

(not checked:)
Rán (noun f.): Rán

kennings

flærðarkunnum runni eisu Ránar.
‘the notoriously deceitful tree of the fire of Rán. ’
= MAN
the fire of Rán. → GOLD
the notoriously deceitful tree of the GOLD → MAN

eisu ‘of the fire’

(not checked:)
1. eisa (noun f.; °; -ur): flame, ember

kennings

flærðarkunnum runni eisu Ránar.
‘the notoriously deceitful tree of the fire of Rán. ’
= MAN
the fire of Rán. → GOLD
the notoriously deceitful tree of the GOLD → MAN

eisu ‘of the fire’

(not checked:)
1. eisa (noun f.; °; -ur): flame, ember

kennings

flærðarkunnum runni eisu Ránar.
‘the notoriously deceitful tree of the fire of Rán. ’
= MAN
the fire of Rán. → GOLD
the notoriously deceitful tree of the GOLD → MAN

runni ‘tree’

(not checked:)
runnr (noun m.; °dat. -i/-; -ar): bush, tree

kennings

flærðarkunnum runni eisu Ránar.
‘the notoriously deceitful tree of the fire of Rán. ’
= MAN
the fire of Rán. → GOLD
the notoriously deceitful tree of the GOLD → MAN

flærðarkunnum ‘the notoriously deceitful’

(not checked:)
flærðarkunnr (adj.): notoriously deceitful

kennings

flærðarkunnum runni eisu Ránar.
‘the notoriously deceitful tree of the fire of Rán. ’
= MAN
the fire of Rán. → GOLD
the notoriously deceitful tree of the GOLD → MAN

Því ‘’

(not checked:)
1. sá (pron.; °gen. þess, dat. þeim, acc. þann; f. sú, gen. þeirrar, acc. þá; n. þat, dat. því; pl. m. þeir, f. þǽ---): that (one), those

notes

[5] heit því ‘promise’: Lit. ‘promise that’, with því ‘that’ regarded as dat. object of heita ‘to promise’. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) and Kock (Skald) emend to þér ‘to you’, dat. object of veita ‘give’, presumably to ensure that both clauses use similar words to express opposite meanings.

heit ‘promise’

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2. heita (verb): be called, promise

notes

[5] heit því ‘promise’: Lit. ‘promise that’, with því ‘that’ regarded as dat. object of heita ‘to promise’. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) and Kock (Skald) emend to þér ‘to you’, dat. object of veita ‘give’, presumably to ensure that both clauses use similar words to express opposite meanings.

eg ‘I’

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ek (pron.; °mín, dat. mér, acc. mik): I, me

víst ‘certainly’

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1. víss (adj.): wise, certain(ly)

að ‘to’

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5. at (nota): to (with infinitive)

veita ‘give’

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2. veita (verb): grant, give

vígs ‘in a fight’

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víg (noun n.; °-s; -): battle

notes

[6] geingi vígs ‘support in a fight’: Lit. ‘support of a fight’.

dreingiligt ‘valiant’

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drengiligr (adj.; °compar. -ari/-ri, superl. -astr/-str): noble-minded, valiant

geingi ‘support’

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gengi (noun n.): support, following

notes

[6] geingi vígs ‘support in a fight’: Lit. ‘support of a fight’.

þier ‘you’

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þú (pron.; °gen. þín, dat. þér, acc. þik): you

heit ‘promise’

(not checked:)
2. heita (verb): be called, promise

eg ‘I’

(not checked:)
ek (pron.; °mín, dat. mér, acc. mik): I, me

mest ‘most’

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meiri (adj. comp.; °meiran; superl. mestr): more, most

að ‘’

(not checked:)
3. at (prep.): at, to

móti ‘’

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móti (prep.): against

meginstrangliga ‘very strongly’

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meginstrangliga (adv.): [very strongly]

að ‘to’

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5. at (nota): to (with infinitive)

ganga ‘oppose’

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2. ganga (verb; geng, gekk, gengu, genginn): walk, go

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

verse
prose

Stanza 29 in dróttkvætt metre illustrates the figure called aclacassis (Lat. antanaclassis or anticlasis) in the prose of FoGT. It is defined thus: Aclacassis er þat, ef maðr setr tvenna skilninga gagnstaðliga með einvm orðum ‘Aclacassis comes about if one proposes two opposing meanings with the same words’. Straight after the stanza, the author comments: Her er þessi figvra tvitekin ok synd í bꜳ̋ðvm visv helmingvm ‘Here this figure is repeated and shown in both halves of the stanza’.

FoGT’s representation of the figure anticlasis is dependent on the prescription in the Doctrinale (Reichling 1893, 176, ll. 2608-9): Sensus oppositos notat anticlasis eodem | verbo: non obsto, sed toto posse resisto ‘Anticlasis denotes opposite senses in the same word: I do not oppose, but I resist in everything possible’. The Icelandic examples in the first helmingr, Eg stend eigi að móti ‘I do not stand opposed’ and eg rís við ‘I oppose’, are clearly dependent on the similar senses of the verbs obsto and resisto in the Latin example. In the second helmingr the relevance of the examples to the figure is less clear, though both probably indicate that the speaker will fight or oppose his adversary (‘you’ in l. 7); both clauses use forms of the verb heita in the sense ‘promise’ rather than any of its other meanings (‘call, be called, invoke’).

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