Íslenzk tunga - 01.01.1965, Page 45

HJARTA DREPR STALL
43
This quotation is laken from the Möðruvallabók-version (AM 132,
fol.) of Fóstbrœðrasaga. The above mentioned passage (cf. 3) with
hjarta drepr stall is from the Flateyjarbók-version of the same saga.
It is obvious that the impersonal phrase variant stall drepr ór
hjarta has the same meaning as the personal phrase.
7) An instance of the variant hjarta er e-m drepit í stall is found
in Hákonarkviða, a poem composed by the doomsman Sturla Þórð-
arson in 1263—64: „
Var geðstemn
gauzkum manni
styrjar stund
i stall drepinn.10
The meaning of the variant is obviously ‘somebody loses heart’.
8) In the rímiír-poetry we find some variants of the phrase in
question and at least one of them is most probably to be considered
very old.
a) Stallr kemr í hjarta e-m:
Visir taladi uitr ok sniallr,
vel ma heyra heren allr,
huerge kemr i hiartad stallr
holda sueit þott Riodez giallR.17
The meaning of the variant is ‘somebody loses heart’.
b) fíjarla e-s gjörir stall:
Greifans fall vid gumna kall,
giorir hans ecki hiartad stall,
grimden suall uid gedsteins hall
geystiz fram vm þetta spiall.18
The ineaning of the phrase variant is, as before, ‘somebody loses
heart’. I am inclined to believe tliat this variant is very old, as I shall
try to show below.
10Skjaldedigtning B II, 126; cf. A II, 119.
17 Sálus r. ok Níkanórs V 2; Rímnasafn II, 720.
18 Sálus r. ok Níkanórs VI 25; ibid. II, 731.