Íslenzk tunga - 01.01.1965, Page 63

HJARTA DREPR STALL 61
correct, gefa stað (arj and slal geban have the same original meaning
as nema stað(ar), taka stað, prendre estal and to take stall.
8) The greatest difficulty in explaining the expression drepa stall
is to decide the meaning of the verb drepa. I do not claim to have
solved that problem, but I think that the observations which I shall
make in this paragraph or the observations in the next one, which
I am more inclined to believe, point in the right direction. We can
presume that the verb has none of the meanings which it ordinarily
has in the Scandinavian languages, of which the most usual are ‘to
strike’ and ‘to kill’. The latter meaning is according to some authori-
lies derived from a prefixed verb, viz. *uz-drepan or *ga-drepan.
In the same way it might be expected that drepa in the phrase in
question is derived from another prefixed verb. I shall discuss two
possibilities. It is possible tliat drepa in this phrase is derived from
*ana-drepan, cf. German antrejfen. The original meaning must have
been ‘to strike on’, which might have developed into ‘touch’, cf. Ice-
landic drepa á in the following senses: (1) knock at, drepa á dyr;74
(2) touch;75 (3) mention, discuss.70 The original meaning of
drepa slall would in that case be ‘to touch the place’, from which
later the meaning ‘to stop’ would have developed. The second possi-
bility is that the drepa of the phrase is derived from *in-drepan, cf.
German einlreffen ‘arrive’. This possibility gives a better explana-
tion of the meaning of the phrase, but has the disadvantage that no
old instances of the German verb are found. On that account it is
doubtful whether it existed in Proto-Germanic. But perhaps it is not
necessary to assume that the verb has ever been prefixed in this
context.
9) If we assume that the phrases with stállr and staðr originally
come from military language, as I have mentioned above, it is per-
haps not necessary to presume that drepa has ever been a prefixed
verb in this phrase. A leader of an army might in a command have
74 íslenzk fornrit IX (1956), 249; XII (1954), 251; Sturlunga saga II, 156.
75 Norrœn fornkvœði ... udgiven af Sophus Bugge (Christiania 1867), 320.
70 Flateyjarbok I, 457.