Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Page 167

Grammatical variation as a stylistic device can at times be rather sophisti-
cated, as in the following example from Ivens saga, in which a verb-noun
combination is part of an interlacing alliterative pattern: Sidan eptir domi
våru brendir å båli er meyna fyrirdæmdu (ch. 12, 123:1-2 ‘Later, those
who had condemned the giri were burned at the stake according to the
judgment.’) Despite its brevity Januals Ijod contains more than a fair
share of grammatical variants, for example, the verb-noun combinations
paccade.pockum (p. 69), gaf:giaver (p. 69), leica.leic (p. 70). Less fre-
quent in the Arthurian riddarasogur are adjective-noun combinations
such as steindir.steinum (Ivens saga, ch. 3, 31:6), sætr.sætleikr (Tristrams
saga, ch. 64, p. 138),21 harmulegan:harm (Geitarlauf, p. 65). These ex-
amples demonstrate not only word play by means of grammatical varia-
tion, but also a form of euphony. Another type of acoustical word play
occurs when similar sounding, though semantically unrelated words, are
juxtaposed, as in Mottuls saga in the description of the mantle’s power:
Hann birti, med hverjum hætti hver hafdi syndgazk. Syndi hann svå allar
falskonur ok meyjar (ch. 4, p. 225 ‘It revealed in what manner each one
had sinned. It exposed thus all unfaithful women and maidens.’) Word
play can take the form of a simple pun, as pat er mælt at kattr er fulir kåtr
(Ivens saga, ch. 3, 21:2 ‘It is said that a cat is happy when full’),22 or eigi
dveljumsk ek, nema ek \issa fyrir satt at ek væra såttr vid mina fru (Ivens
saga, ch. 12, 124:10-12 ‘I would not remain, unless I were certain that I
was once again reconciled with my lady’).23 A similar play on words
occurs as part of a complex and extensive alliterating pattern in Ivens
saga, in which alliteration functions to link not only two sentences but
also two successive scenes:
Hann vissi eigi /ulla fridar van. Ok er {)au inn komu, [jå sat
su hinn frida fru med einum raudum silkikult. (ch. 6, 55:3-
5)24
21 See Schach, “Style and Structure,” p. 73, for a discussion of the entire passage in which
this figure occurs.
22 The pun is found only in AM 489, but corresponds to Yvain, v. 594: L'an dit que chaz
saous s’anvoise.
23 AM 489 has a lacuna at this point; the example occurs only in Stockholm 6.
24 One should also remember that in this context the less common meaning of fridr,
namely “love,” could have peripherally affected the total perception of the passage by a
native speaker.
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