Íslenzk tunga - 01.01.1965, Side 85

QMÐ AND HINN
83
syncope.4 And Amolh- (earlier *Amuþ-) answers to Snorri’s Qmð,
which likewise goes back, by u-mutation and syncope, to an earlier
*Amuþ.5
From the three references to Qmð in Heimskringla we learn that
it lay in the northern part of Hálogaland and that it included Þránd-
arnes. P. A. Munch accordingly identified it with the island of
Hinn.6 But 0. Rygh pointed out that both Qmð and Hinn are listed
as eyja heiti and he inferred that they were names for different is-
lands; so also S. Bugge. The two savants agreed, further, in identi-
fying Qmð with the modern And, an island just to the north of
Hinn.7 It remains true that, according to Snorri, “Sigurðr bjó í Qmð
á Þrándarnesi”8 and Þrándarnes undoubtedly makes part of the is-
land of Hinn. One can hardly believe that Snorri would have the
wrong name for Norway’s biggest island or would locate Þrándar-
nes wrongly on And. We must delve deeper, not he content to say
with Rygh and Bugge that Snorri here fell into error.
In looking at the thula it struck me, the other day, that the long
line
asparnir, hinn, iolund ok lianki
would show three occurrences of the vocalic stave if the h of hiiin
were reckoned inorganic. The line as it stands has a two-stave pat-
tern (asparnir alliterates with iolund and hinn with hanki), a fea-
ture found, though uncommon, in Germanic verse and twice exempli-
fied elsewhere in the thula itself. Obviously emendation to inn would
not he justified even if the modern form Hinn were wanting. Yet it
4 K. Luiek, Hislorische Grammatik der englischen Sprache I (Leipzig 1914),
284.
5 For the u-mutation, see A. Noreen, Altislandische und altnorwegische
Grammatik (4th ed.; Halle (Saale) 1923), 69; for the syncope, ibid., 135.
<i P. A. Munch, “Geografiske Bemærkninger, knyttede til et hidtil uudgivet
Stykke af den yngre Edda,” Annaler jor nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie
1846, 88.
7 Norske Gaardnavne XVI (Kristiania 1905), 404—405, 411.
8 Ólájs saga lielga, cap. 117.