[norse_course] Re: Ellisifjardrápa (revised stanza 5)

> Actually I was starting to think there was only one tune in my
> flute, because in the first version I noticed I was reusing some
> obvious rhymes from earlier.

That's okay. Everyone does that.

> 'frost Mistar' is glossed here as "icy wind of Mist" [battle]
>
> http://www.hi.is/~eybjorn/ugm/kennings/weather.html
>
> fjöld linkinna linna "a multitude of mercies of serpents" [many
> summers]

Ah, yes. Eysteinn had already explained this too me :)

> -- but yeah, I overdid that alliteration again didn't I.
> Maybe there's something we could replace 'lin-' with. Or if the
> rhyme is less sacrosanct: fjöld miskunna linna?

Perhaps. Yes, the alliteration is sacrosanct.
Through the long history of traditional poetry
in Iceland there have been all sorts of experimentation
with the rhyme but no one seems to have broken free
of the alliteration rules. I was just now reading
some of the Brávallarímur by Árni Böðvarsson -
an 18th century work. Here's one stanza:

"Geðs úr sal mitt gjósi tal,
gef eg án efa Vóðni
rauðan val og hvörn einn hal,
sem hristir fal með sköfnungs dal."

Why on earth 'Vóðni' instead of 'Óðni'?
To avoid over-alliteration. But doesn't
"eg án efa" already over-alliterate? No,
because "gef eg án" is one metrical foot.
(Or, I suppose you could analyze it as
"gef eg" and then "án efa".)

Not, perhaps, a very good stanza so out of
fairness to Árni I'll quote a better one:

Kvæðin hæða, Kvásirs æða flæða
saftin dofnar, kynnir kver,
kraftinn sofna finn í mér.

> "Lightbulb", well yes, afraid so, but put to a completely
> traditional use, isn´t it? I slipped in one other modern word
> later, but I think it was worth it. On the other hand, I think I
> might have found an old word for "miners" in Cleasby-
> Vigfusson: 'grafarmenn'. But maybe they didn't want to use this on
> Age of Mythology because they don't go underground there. Zoega
> has 'grjótberg' "quarry". Fritzner has:
>
> grjótsveinn, m. underordnet Stenarbeider;
> Þorkell grjótsveinn DN. IV, 1814. 459.
>
> Cleasby-Vigfusson:
> grjotsveinn, m. a stonemason's lad
>
> In other words, someone who works for a grjótsmiðr. Would
> such "lads" would also cut stones in a quarry and bring them to the
> mason?

No, they bring it to the ox cart and then, oh sorry...

Good work finding the grjótsveinn. :)

> Reynt´s hjarta rann innan
> rifja Ellisifjar.
>
> "Rann hjarta er reynt innan rifja Ellisifja."

I feel dense. "An experienced house of heart
is within the ribs of Elizabeth?"

I think this has some metrical problems of its own...
I don't think you can put the first rhyme right next
to the second one.

>> a victory over the unwise.
>
> I mean "undear". Can 'ósváss' also mean "unwise"? Or were you
> thinking of 'ósvinnr'?

My mistake!

Kveðja,
Haukur