Gripla - 20.12.2018, Side 158

GRIPLA158
Ongin ðé generes wilnian
[Desire a refuge for thyself]67
furthermore, a compound *feorhgener ‘preservation of life’ is attested
once.
...buton se cyningc him feorhgeneres unne
[...unless the king grant him that his life be spared] 68
the derivational relationship between the neuter abstract nouns ner and
the feminine action noun *-neru is not entirely clear; presumably both
words are derived independently from the verb nerian ‘save’. there is a
semantic overlap, however, as *-neru, which basically means ‘saving’ can
also have the sense ‘refuge’, which is the basic meaning of ner.
3.6. Conclusions about old English *-neru and ner
The relevant nouns in Old English are derived from the verb nerian ‘save’,
which has cognates in other West Germanic languages and Gothic. It is
reconstructed as Common Germanic *nazjan- ‘save’. the old English
nouns are of two kinds. on the one hand, there is a feminine action noun,
attested only in compounds, whose conjectured nominative singular would
be *-neru (*ealdorneru/*aldorneru, *feorhneru, and *lífneru). These nouns
are ō-stems in old English, but presumably they were originally i-stems,
which would explain the umlaut of the root vowel. the meaning of the
word *-neru is basically ‘saving’, but in accordance with anlezark’s analysis,
it can also be taken to mean ‘the one who saves, savior’. on the other hand,
there is a neuter abstract noun ner (with a prefixed form gener and the com-
pound *feorhgener). This is an a-stem noun, but given the root vocalism of
ner, it was perhaps originally an i-stem like *-neru. The noun ner has the
basic meaning ‘refuge’ (i.e. ‘a place of safety’).
4. aldrnari ‘lifesaver’
The Old English analogues, *ealdorneru and related words, shed new light
on the meaning as well as the formation of the word aldrnari in Völuspá.
their proper evaluation diminishes the strength of earlier interpretations,
67 Ibid., 421.
68 Ibid., 279. DOE, s.v. feorhgener.