Gripla - 20.12.2013, Blaðsíða 28

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‘the giants [denizens of the steep cliffs] were not rueful at that;
then was Ið- amongst the giants -unn newly arrived from the
south.’
there is no reason to suppose that Þjóðólfr’s audience would have had dif-
ficulty understanding tmesis of the familiar mythological name Iðunn.134
Another equally transparent example of tmesis of a personal name (Hákon)
is attributed to the tenth-century Gunnhildr konungamóðir:
Há- reið á bak báru
borðhesti -kon vestan,
skǫrungr léta brim bíta
bǫrð, es gramr hefr Fjǫrðu.135
‘Há- on the back of the wave with the ship [plank-horse] -kon rode
from the west; the champion did not allow the prow to graze on the
surf, when he holds the fjords.’
Against prevailing scholarship, kock would emend to Hár- … konr ‘high
(i.e., eminent) man’ in order to avoid tmesis, which systematically fell foul
of his assumptions regarding commonsense in skaldic interpretation. A
side-benefit would allegedly be to enhance the hending (which would be-
come hár:bár-),136 but, as olsen observes, this is unnecessary since há r:bár-
in itself constitutes a recognised type of hending.137
the above two examples are reminiscent of ermoldus’s rendering of
his own name as Er- -moldus (cited above). Place names are also subjected
mark, ‘Myten om Idun og Tjatse i Tjodolfs Haustlǫng’, Arkiv for nordisk filologi 64 (1950):
10; turville-Petre, Scaldic Poetry, 11; Edda: Skáldskaparmál, 1:32; contrast felix Genzmer,
‘Zwei angebliche fälle der Wortspaltung’, Arkiv for nordisk filologi 44 (1928): 305–6.
134 de Vries, Altnordische Literaturgeschichte, 1:119.
135 ‘Gunnhildr konungamóðir: lausavísa’, ed. R.d. fulk, in Whaley, Poetry from the Kings’
Sagas, vol. 1, 151. Cf. finnur jónsson, Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning, 1 (A.1):61, and
3 (B.1):54; finnur jónsson, ‘kenningers led-omstilling’, 10–11; Ágrip af Nóregskonunga
sǫgum: Fagrskinna, Nóregs konunga tal, ed. Bjarni einarsson, íslenzk fornrit, vol. 29
(Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1984), 75.
136 kock, Notationes norrœnæ, §249.
137 Magnus olsen, ‘Har dronning Gunnhild diktet om Håkon den Gode?’, Avhandlinger: det
norske videnskaps-akademi i oslo: Historisk-filosophisk klasse, vol. 1 (oslo: dybwad,
1944), 4; cf. ‘Gunnhildr konungamóðir: lausavísa’, 151.