Gripla - 20.12.2013, Blaðsíða 33

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snorri’s commentary vouches by implication for the presence of tmesis:
Hann kallaði stein vazta undirkúlu – steinninn – en jǫtun Ála steinsins, en
gull rǫdd jǫtuns (‘he called “stone” the “under-globe of fishing grounds” –
the stone – and “giant” the “Áli of the stone”, and “gold” the “voice of the
giant”’).156 In other words, the element vazt-, from vǫzt (‘fishing ground’),
is to be taken as first half of a nonce compound vazt-undirkúla (‘fishing-
ground under-globe, seabed-globe’).157
the same type is exemplified once in Haustlǫng:
ok lómhugaðr lagði
leik- blaðs -reginn fjaðrar
ern at ǫglis barni
arnsúg faðir Mǫrnar.158
‘And with deceitful mind the giant [Mǫrn’s father], feather-blade
play-deity, directed a storm-wind against Loki [the hawk’s
offspring].’159
In Anthony faulkes’s analysis, the kenning for Þjazi, leikblaðs fjaðrar
reginn, ‘god (or dwarf) of the play-blade of the feather’, is to be taken as
equivalent to fjaðrar blaðs leikreginn, ‘god (or dwarf) of the play of the
feather-blade’. thus Þjazi is the ‘god, i.e., causer, of the feather’s play-
ing blade’, meaning that he beats or flaps his wings.160 this type is often
referred to as the ‘inverted kenning’, because in it the nonce-compounds
characteristic of kennings are treated tmetically.161 It proliferated greatly in
subsequent skaldic poetry.
A final type of tmesis to be mentioned involves the insertion of a
preposition between the parts of a compound. It is attested in Haustlǫng:
156 Edda: Skáldskaparmál, 1:45, with modifications.
157 Edda: Skáldskaparmál, 2:432, with modifications.
158 Haustlǫng 12.5–8: Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning, 3 (B.1):16; Edda: Skáldskaparmál,
1:33.
159 Edda, 88, with modifications.
160 Edda: Skáldskaparmál, 2:345, following kock, Notationes norrœnæ, §138.
161 Amory, ‘tmesis’, 47, and references there given.
sCHoLARs And skALds