Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1999, Page 270

250
Part Two
Eg III st. 17.6: es gSrum sé (Skj. A 1: 42, B 1: 36; kviduhåttr)
Eirm st. 5.5: ef Eirikr sé (Skj. A 1: 175, B 1: 165; målahåttr)10
But we have seen that this criterion is not altogether safe. Better
evidence for contracted forms are examples with assonance or rhyme:
Eskål III st. 35.3:
Eil II st. 14.1:
Am III st. 8.3:
Målshåttakvædi st. 5.3—4:
-------st. 12.1-2:
-------st. 13.5-6:
Hårs vi5 Hggna skurir (Skj. Al: 131, B 1:
123)* 11
Ok hgm loga himni (Skj. Al: 150, B 1: 142)
svei5 ofgm at Jomi12 (Skj. A 1: 340, B 1:
313)
annars barn er sem ulf at frjå,
oSfuss myndi blindr at sjå
Skips låta menn skammar rår,
skatna {jykkir hugrinn grår
mgrgum jjykkir fullgott fé,
frænuskammr er enn deigi lé
(Skj. A2: 131, 133, B 2: 139, 141)
Since Målshåttakvædi is presumably composed in the latter part of the
12th century or later, it is of little value for the chronology of the con-
traction. But the first examples are all from before the year 1000, and
Amorr jarlaskald’s poem from the years after 1035. According to the
scanty skaldic evidence, contracted forms thus occurred as early as the
lOth century.13
10 In the revised B-text Finnur Jonsson writes séi (Skj. B I: 165), which can be taken as
Sievers’s type aA2k, normal in this metre. As mentioned above (p. 247 n. 2), a long vow-
el in front of another vowel counts as short.
11 Kuhn reads the word form Hårs contracted, probably on account of the hending, which
we also have chosen as a criterion. Finnur Jonsson reads the forms as uncontracted, how-
ever, Hijars (cf. Finnur Jonsson 193 lb: 314), but apparently he has no particular argument
apart from the age of the poem. Kuhn also refers to Eil II st. 5.4: hlaupår of ver gaupu (Skj.
Al: 149,B 1: 140), where -år according to him must be contracted. Also here Finnur Jons-
son reads -åar, and Kuhn notes that this form is required in the same stanza in the compo-
sition fjodåar (Kuhn 1983: 69-70).
12 Ms. readings: ofåm, Hrokkinskinna, ofan, Flateyjarbok, ofåm. Hulda (Skj. A 1: 340).
13 Fuller treatment of the skaldic evidence is given in Finnur Jonsson 1901, cf. p. 246
n. 1 above.