Gripla - 01.01.1998, Síða 62

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GRIPLA
ferðast um eða stundum handan við útjaðra þess nú eða nokkru sinni vitan-
lega. í kennslustarfa sínum höfðu skólameistaramir gömlu, Snorri og Olafur,
að vissu leyti meiri mætur á því í skáldskapnum sem féll undir athafnasvið
Braga (hagleikur, tækni) en Oðins (allt það háskalega og dularfulla). Ætli
þetta hafi nokkuð breytzt? Eða hefur ekki, af tveimur goðsagnarlegum höf-
undum skáldlistarinnar, Bragi allar götur verið tekinn fram yfir Oðin hjá þess-
ari þjóð? Svo mun vera, og ekki hjá þessari þjóð einni.
HEIMILDIR
Almqvist, Bo. 1990. Upp flöt lever och lunga. En preliminár omtuggning av proble-
men rörande de nordiska vattenhastságnemas ursprung. Inte bara visor. Studier
kring folklig diktning och musik tillágnade Bengt R. Jonsson den 19 mars 1990:
15-42. Svenskt Visarkiv, Stockholm.
Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. 1931. Útg. Finnur Jónsson. Kpbenhavn.
Finnur Jónsson (útg.). 1912. Den norsk-islandske Skjaldedigtning I:A. Kobenhavn.
Rimmon-Kenan, Shlomith. 1983. Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics. Methuen,
London.
Ólafur Þórðarson. 1884. III. afhandling. Den tredje ogfjœrde grammatiske afhandling
i Snorres Edda tilligemed de grammatiske afhandlingers prolog og to andre til-
teg:l-l 19. Udg. Bjöm Magnússon Ólsen. STUAGNL XII. Kpbenhavn.
Sveinbjöm Egilsson. 1931. Lexicon poeticum. Útg. Finnur Jónsson. Kobenhavn.
SUMMARY
Recognising that poetry is bound to reflect the world as it investigates the condition of
man, the present article seeks to reappraise the meaning and function of nykrað,
‘disharmonious imagery’, as opposed to nýgerving, the term traditionally favoured in
scholarship, at least since Snorri’s Edda. Snorri rather frowns on nykrað, whereas the
perfectly harmonised imagery of nýgerving is seen as the epitome of scaldic art. The
author accepts that nykrað derives from nykur, the waterhorse of folk legend. He
maintains that the most common Icelandic version of this legend is a very apt meta-
phor for the universally recognised human experience of almost failing to escape from
some risky situation, of almost not surviving as a member of civilised human society
and, as a consequence, of being lost in the wilderness, or in death. Human life is
fraught with such dangers, and the animal nykur is its personification, ever likely to
confront and befuddle us on the borderline between civilisation and chaos. It can
appear anywhere — as the tiger ridden by the lady of Niger or, perhaps, as the animal
nature threatening the foolish woman in the verse cited by Ólafur Þórðarson. If poetry