Re: icelandstone

Mr. Rhys,

Thank you for your reply, but I don't think I was clear enough in my
first post. I am looking only for instances of a host giving guests
half portions of his food and drink, not the generic giving of gifts
to travelers/visitors nor even of giving food in general. I am
finding that there is a recurring them in several IE traditions. I
have found mentions in very similar situations and closely-alligned
syntax of this sort of giving in Old Icelandic, Middle English,
Persian, and Greek. I am still looking for more.

If there is such a thing in Welsh I would be thrilled to see it but I
would need an exact reference and a quote in the original.


Thank you,

Chad Stone

--- In cybalist@..., guto rhys <gutorhys@...> wrote:
>
> A number of early Welsh poems deal with the theme of giving within
the context of the poet/patron relationship. Have a look at Dadolwch
Urien by Taliesin or his poems to Cynan Garwyn. There exists a
translation to English of Ivor Williams´book Canu Taliesin. I
recollect refences to sword-giving (´cledyf gwein carrek´(a sword
with a stone scabbard-presumably a reference to gems)) and one of the
main themes running through the extant poetry of the sixth century is
the generosity of the lord. I have a feeling that some references are
made to giving horses as well but at present I don´t have access to
my books but these references should be easy enough to locate. I
think that there is also an article dealing with the theme of gift-
gving or generosity. I´m sure there are numerous similar references
in later poetry as well - especially in the work of the poets of the
Welsh Princes and the later poets of the Gentry .gutorhys@...
> icelandstone <chad@...> wrote: Hello.
>
> I am a student of Linguistics and Icelandic Philology at the
> University of Icelandic in Reykjavík. I am working on an article
> about the Gestaþáttur section of Hávamál in the Poetic Edda. I
have
> located a section (verses 41-52) which deals with friendship inside
> the broader context of being a guest and being a host (hence the
> appelation Gestaþáttur, 'guest-section').
>
> I have done a fairly involved examination of the alliteration used
in
> the poem, its metrical structure, its word-usage and other
linguistic
> analyses. What I am lacking is a basis for its grouping among
other
> IE traditions of gift-giving and friend-making.
>
> Verse 52 runs thus in normalized modern spelling:
>
> Mikið eitt
> skal-a manni gefa;
> oft kaupir sér í litlu lof;
> með hálfum hleifi
> og með höllu keri
> fékk eg mér félaga.
>
> Auden translated the stanza thusly:
>
> Not great things alone must one give to another,
> praise oft is earned for nought;
> with half a loaf and a tilted bowl
> I have found me many a friend.
>
>
> I have found a reference in Anabasis about Cyrus giving halves of
> geese and half-carafes of wine to guests in his lodgings, but not
> much else in other IE traditions, at least not in recorded,
> transmitted stories/poems/epics, etc. I am hoping that someone on
> this list will recognize this theme and point me to another text
that
> I could use to support my view that this has to be a theme running
> through IE society. I have found several things in Mauss and also
in
> Jamison, but nothing that matches exactly.
>
> Any help would be appreciated.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Chad Stone
> Department of Literature and Linguistics
> University of Iceland
> Reykjavík
>
> chad@...
>
>
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