Íslenzk tunga - 01.01.1965, Side 52

50
HALLDÓR HALLDÓRSSON
(i.e., ‘6. (in a ship) step of a mast; ..., one loses heart’).41 That
Dr. Blöndal gives the phrase under the meaning ‘step of a mast’
shows that he is thinking of Vigfússon’s third explanation.
III
Before expounding my own theory of the origin of the phrase
lijarta drepr stall and stating my reasons for it, I want to give a
short summary of my studies of other phrases from the Germanic
languages having the same or a very similar meaning. I concentrated
on phrases which mean ‘to lose heart’ and contain the word ‘heart’
as subject, object, or as a part of a prepositional phrase. My result
was that these phrases can, as regards the original meaning, be di-
vided into three categories, viz. (1) the heart beats violently, (2)
the heart changes its place in the body, and (3) the heart stops
beating.42 I shall here only give a few instances of each category.
lsl category
a) In ihe poem Bers^glisvísur composed in 1038 by Sighvatr
Þórðarson we find the phrase hjarta skellr ‘somebody loses heart’.43
Skellr comes from the verb skjalla ‘to clash, beat’. The original
meaning of the phrase is thus ‘the heart beats violently’.
b) lljarta datlar. We have two instances of this phrase in Old
Icelandic.44 It is difficult to determine the exact meaning of the
phrase, but it is used in descriptions of a state of fear. In Björn Hall-
dórsson’s Lexicon (written in the 18th century) the verb datta is
41 Ibid. 788.
42 If the English phrase to lose heart has ever had a concrete sense, it would
form the fourth category. I am, however, inclined to believe that it never has,
i.e., heart has always in tliis phrase meant ‘courage’, cf. Swedish tappa modet,
Icel. missa kjarkinn. The same applies to Icel. hjartaií varð eptir heima (19th
century; Sajn aj íslcnzkum orðskviðum ... saman lesið og í stafrófsröð sett af
Guðmundi Jónssyni (Kaupmannahöfn 1830).
43 Skjaldedigtning B I, 235; cf. A I, 252.
44 /slenzk jornrit VI, 144 = Flateyjarbok II, 102; Flateyjarbok II, 165.