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

Anon (Ágr) 1I/2 — eld ‘the fire’

Æ standa mér augu
of eld til Gráfeldar.

Æ standa augu mér of eld til Gráfeldar.

Always my eyes are turned across the fire to Gráfeldr (‘Grey-cloak’).

notes

[2] of eld ‘across the fire’: Of eld is written clearly as two words in the ms., and the line is a Type B with the prep. of ‘across’ in anacrusis. Kock (NN §2761) initially took of eld as a cpd adj. ófeld ‘unwavering’ (lit. ‘not-turned-down’) qualifying augu (n. nom. pl.) ‘eyes’ (l. 1), hence ‘always my unwavering eyes are turned towards Gráfeldr’. Kuhn (1936b, 159) pointed out that this construction involves illicit alliteration on the rhyming syllables, in response to which Kock (NN §2902G; Skald) created another cpd adj. of-eld ‘exceedingly kindled’ or ‘burning’. Aside from the fact that the cpd is unattested, this reading is metrically impossible: the two syllables in the cpd would resolve on the first lift, creating a pentasyllabic line (see Kuhn 1937, 51-2). 

grammar

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.