Anon (FoGT) 3^III

Eg veit, að ní neitar
Nytju logs, því er flytja
meiðar geirþings …,
Gunnr fjarðloga runni.

Eg veit, að {Gunnr {logs Nytju}} ní neitar {runni {fjarðloga}}, því er {… meiðar {geirþings}} flytja.

I know that {the Gunnr <valkyrie> {of the flame of Nytja <river>}} [GOLD > WOMAN] does not deny {to the bush {of the fjord-flame}} [GOLD > MAN] that for which {the … trees {of the spear-assembly}} [BATTLE > WARRIORS] plead.

Mss: W(111) (FoGT)

Readings: [2] logs: lǫgs W

Editions: Skj AII, 214, Skj BII, 231, Skald II, 120, NN §1443; SnE 1848-87, II, 192-5, III, 154, FoGT 1884, 122, 242, FoGT 2004, 32, 60, 88-90, FoGT 2014, 4-5, 56.

Context: The fourth and final example of litotes in FoGT. The author prefaces his quotation of this example with: Stvndvm standa tvær neitingar fyrer einni iatan sem her ‘Sometimes two negations stand instead of one affirmation, as here’. Following the citation of the helmingr, the author explains: her seger skalldit, at konan sv er manni iataðiz fyrer flvtning fǫrvnavta sinna, neitaði ní ‘here the poet says that the woman who consented to the man on account of the pleading of his companions did not say no’.

Notes: [1] ní ‘not’: Negative particle, form of nei ‘no’, attested in Old Icelandic poetry only here and in Am 48/8, but cf. the first element of the cpd verb níkvæða ‘deny’ (lit. ‘say “no”’). — [2] Nytju ‘of Nytja <river>’: River name, forming the determinant of a regular gold-kenning. Cf. Grí 28/4 Nyt, SnE 2005, 33 and Note to Þul Á 6/1. — [2] logs ‘of the flame’: For orthographic <ǫ> standing for [o] in W, see SnE 1848-87, III, liii-liv and TGT 1884, 242 n. 1. See also st. 14/7 below. — [3] …: Unlike Anon (FoGT) 1/2, where the scribe has left a gap for a word that was never filled in, there is no sign in W that anything is missing between geirþings ‘of the spear-assembly’ and Gunnr (l. 4), but, as it stands, l. 3 is hypometrical and eds generally assume a missing word, which must begin with <g> for purposes of alliteration. Árni Magnússon wrote ‘[góðir]’ ‘good’ after geirþings in 761aˣ(94r), and Finnur Jónsson, Kock and Longo use the same adj., qualifying meiðar, in Skj B, Skald and FoGT 2004. SnE 1848-87, II, 194, following Rask (1818a, 336) has glaðir ‘cheerful’, but, as Björn Magnússon Ólsen (FoGT 1884, 242) points out, the second-to-last syllable of the line must be long. The latter conjectured glóða ‘of embers’, providing the kenning meiðar glóða geirþings ‘the trees of the embers of the spear-assembly [BATTLE > SWORDS > WARRIORS]’.

References

1. Bibliography
2. TGT 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.
3. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
4. 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.
5. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
7. Rask, Rasmus Kristian, ed. 1818a. Snorra Edda ásamt Skáldu og þarmeð fylgjandi ritgjörðum. Stockholm: Hin Elménska prentsmiðja.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
11. FoGT 2014 = Clunies Ross, Margaret and Jonas Wellendorf, eds. 2014. The Fourth Grammatical Treatise. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
12. Internal references
13. (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 18 April 2024)
14. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Á heiti 6’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 850.
15. Not published: do not cite ()
16. Not published: do not cite ()
17. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Lausavísur, Stanzas from the Fourth Grammatical Treatise 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 573.