Íslenzk tunga - 01.01.1965, Qupperneq 51

IIJARTA DREPR STALL
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tion means “stöðugleikr.”SG In the fí;''.tionary the word stöðugleikr
is translated “fast Stilling” (i.e., 'firm (stable) position’). Under
stallra, where the expression hjanc stallrar is mentioned, this is
compared with the plirase hjarta drepr stall. Although Fritzner’s
utterances are not perfectly clear, he seems to have been of the
opinion that drepa slall has the same meaning as stallra, i.e., ‘to
stop’. The same opinion was set forth by Professor Ivar Lindquist,
who translates drppu slall with “stannade” (i.e., ‘stopped’) ,37 and
by Dr. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson in his edition of Heimskringla,
where he translates the phrase with “hjarlað hœttir að slá af ótta,
e-m fellsl hugur” (i.e., ‘the heart stops heating from fear, somehody
loses heart’). He translates, though with a question mark like Fritz-
ner, the word slallr with “stanz, kyrrstaða” (i.e., ‘stop, standstill’),
and maintains that the expression hjarta stallrar has the same sense
as the phrase in question.38 I agree in main points with these three
last mentioned scholars. The reasons for this opinion will be stated
below.
Proíessor Finnur Jónsson makes no attempt to explain the origin
of the phrase in his Lexicon poeticum.39 Dr. Sigfús Blöndal on the
other hand summarizes two of Vigfússon’s explanations in his Ice-
landic-Danish Dictionary. Under drepa he has the following remark:
“hjarta drepur stall, Hjærtet banker af Frygt (egl. banker ligesom
mod en Klippeafsats)” (i.e., ‘the heart beats from fear (properly
beats as if against a rockledge)’).40 But I am not surethat Vigfússon
meant it in that way. I am more inclined to believe that he was try-
ing to explain the phrase as a metaphor from stone-masonry, as I
have stated above. Under slállur we find the following explanation:
“6. (í skipi) Mastespor; hjartað drepur stall, Modet svigter en”
«o Ibid. III, 519.
37 Norröna lovkvaden, 97.
38 íslenzk jornrit XXVII, 374.
30Lexicon poeticum ... 2. Udgave ved Finnur Jónsson (K0benhavn 1931).
40 Sigíús Blöndal, íslensk-dönsk orðabók (Reykjavík 1920—24), 141.
ÍSLENZK TUNCA 4