Íslenzk tunga - 01.01.1965, Side 46

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HALLDÓR HALLDÓRSSON
c) E-r drepr stall at gera e-t:
Fann það snót, hinn fagri jall
fekk hann herðslu stinna,
hvörgi drap þá herrann stall
henni með sæmd að vinna.19
The meaning of the variant is ‘somebody is afraid to do some-
thing’.
9) About the fate of the phrase in question in Icelandic after the
Reformation (16th century) I have not much information to give.
From the 19th century I have found some instances in the works of
writers who were very familiar with Old Icelandic literature; Dr.
Egilsson, for instance, uses the phrase in his Homer translations.20
The variant e-m drepur hjarta í slall is also found in the 19th cen-
tury, also in a book whose author has been influenced by old writ-
ers.21
The phrase hjarta drepur stall is also found in Blöndal’s Icelandic-
Danish Dictionary, but obviously he has not taken it from daily
speech. His source is without doubt Cleasby-Vigfússon’s dictionary.
Cf., further, the comment by Otto L. Jiriczek to the strophe cited
above in 8c: “im modernen Isl. heisst es (nach Mitteilung versch.
Islánder) einhverjum drepr stall, der Acc. ist also auffállig.”22 The
construction e-m drepur stall may indeed exist in Modern Icelandic
(cf. the quotation in footnote 25): a similar phrase is known from
10 Z>ie Bósa-Rímur herausgegeben von Otto L. Jiriczek (Breslau 1894), 42.
20 IliónskviSa_([a translation by Dr. S. Egilsson, first edition 1885];
Reykjavík 1949), 297.
Quotations from Icelandic literary works of the 18th and 19th centuries are
in most cases taken from the Orðabók Iláskóla Islands, now under preparation.
21 Islands Árbœkur í sögu-formi af Joni Espolin_IV (Kaupmannahöfn
1825), 82.
22 Die Bósa-Rímur, 90. Concerning the form herrann, how does Mr. Jiriczek
know that this is an accusative at all? According to my linguistic feeling and
— I think I am able to insist — according to common Icelandic linguistic
feeling herrann is nominative; so nothing is “auffallig” in the strophe.