Cookies on our website

We use cookies on this website, mainly to provide a secure browsing experience but also to collect statistics on how the website is used. You can find out more about the cookies we set, the information we store and how we use it on the cookies page.

Continue

skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

Menu Search

Bragi Frag 4III/2 — lung ‘the longship’

Þars, sem lofðar líta
lung váfaðar Gungnis.

Þars, sem lofðar líta lung váfaðar Gungnis.

It is there as men see the longship of the swinger of Gungnir <Óðinn’s spear> [= Óðinn > HORSE = Sleipnir].

notes

[2] lung ‘the longship’: Here presumed to be the base-word of a horse-kenning. From Lat. [navis] longa, probably via OIr. long (Falk 1912, 89; Jesch 2001a, 123; see also Note to Þul Skipa 2/7). Lungr occurs as a horse-name in Anon Þorgþ I 1/7 and Þul Hesta 2/4 and (possibly) in an obscure fragment attributed to Egill Skallagrímsson (Egill Frag), cited in TGT (TGT 1884, 86) in the same chapter as Bragi’s couplet (it also includes a reference to Gungnir). Horse-kennings are rare in skaldic poetry, the only comparable example being Sigv Frag 2/3 knǫrr rastar ‘the ship of the league’. Both these kennings invert the common metaphor ‘horse of the sea’ for ‘ship’; see Note to Sigv Frag 2/3.

kennings

grammar

case: acc.

Close

Log in

This service is only available to members of the relevant projects, and to purchasers of the skaldic volumes published by Brepols.
This service uses cookies. By logging in you agree to the use of cookies on your browser.

Close

Word in text

This view shows information about an instance of a word in a text.