Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1999, Side 271
IX Contracted forms
251
If the quoted examples are to be trusted and we consider the contrac-
tion phenomenon as a whole,14 there is thus a very great period of over-
lap, and if the test had not been so biased as it is, there might have been
more early contracted forms.
Material
In order to apply the contraction test I have tried to lay out a complete
list of occurrences of uncontracted/contracted forms in Eddie poetry,
without, however, having any illusion that I have succeeded in including
every single example. The list is mainly based on Robert Kellogg’s con-
cordance (Kellogg 1988), compared to the relevant literature on the test
as well as the apparatus in Kuhn’s edition (1962), where the reconstruc-
tion of uncontracted forms by earlier editors are noted.
I have checked Kellogg’s entries to the following words: å, f., blår,
adj., brå, f., dreyrfådr, adj.,/a, st.v.,/a, w.v., (-)får, adj,,fé, n.,fimmtån,
r\\im.,fjå, \.,frjå, \.,fri, m., Gimlé, propr., grår, adj., gré(i), m., hå, f.,
Hålfr, propr., hår, adj., Hårr, propr., hju, n., hræ, n.,jårn, n.,15 jor, m.,
Kjårr, propr., kné, n., Ijå, v., lé, m., nå, v., dask, v., osmår, adj., velspår,
adj., rå, f., så, v., sjå, v., (-)skår, adj., slå, f., slå, v., strå, n., strå, v., tjå,
v., tré, n., tveir, num., vera, v., pjå, v., prå, f., pr ir, num., pvå, v.16
For the interpretation of the examples I apply the rules mentioned
earlier, which presuppose that the fornyrdislag metre prefers verses in
four syllables (or rather metrical positions), which, admittedly, is a tend-
ency rather than a rule. After a stressed syllable, as the third position in
Sievers’s types A2k and C3, the actual forms will give the expected num-
ber of syllables only when read as uncontracted. It is well known that
14 Methodologically it would have been better to separate the various forms of contrac-
tion, as Finnur Jonsson (1901, 1921) has done, but since this would reduce each group to
an extremely limited number of examples, I have preferred to make use of the whole ma-
terial.
15 In Grtmnismål st. 37.6 the form tsarn occurs, and some editors prefer this form where
it fits into the metre, e.g. Hamdismål st. 15.2,25.7.
16 Finnur Jonsson (1901: 39, 1921: 257-59) has argued for the exelusion of the present
participles/rændr and fjåndr and the form Tempsar, gen. of Temps, not Temps-åar (Finnur
Jonsson in Konråb Gislason 1892: xi; Finnur Jonsson 1901: 39). Since tvåa, acc. m. of
tveir, is an analogical form, the original form tvd can hardly be taken as example of an
uncontracted form (Finnur Jonsson 1921: 316; cf. Hymiskvida 15.8,Atlakvida 37.4).