--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "llama_nom" <600cell@...> wrote:

>

> Apart from those Old Norse texts themselves, Icelandic is useful for
> reading the scholarly apparatus that accompanies Icelandic editions of
> Old Norse texts and other academic material and *websites* about the
> medieval literature.

A case in point:

http://www.flensborg.is/sveinn/Skrar/Kv%C3%A6%C3%B0i/Atlakvida.htm#top

I just came across this site with an introduction to the poem and
notes in Modern Icelandic. I see they interpret 'ár' in the first
strophe as "once upon a time", "long ago" rather than as "messanger"
(accusative singular of 'árr', in apposition to 'segg' "man"), which
is grammatically equally possible.

Atli sendi
ár til Gunnars
kunnan segg at ríða,
Knéfröðr var sá heitinn;

I recently read a paper arguing that this and other notoriously
debated words in the poem are deliberately ambiguous, and show the
poets skill in saying more than one thing at once, often juxtaposing
the polite surface with its sinister undercurrents, as in 'valrauðr'
"adorned with high-quality (red) gold" or "red with the blood of the
slain" (Neil C. Hultin 1974: Some homonyms in the Old Norse Atlakviða,
MLN 89:5, German Issue. pp. 862-866).

LN