Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1999, Page 333
XII Foreign matter poems
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in the table with + S.24 In the fifth column I give the sum of the occur-
rences in columns 1-4, and finally the number of different words in-
volved in the examples in each poem, Sigurdr excluded, but words of
the type svaradi included.
Table 26. Deviating metrical types in fornyrdislag poems (Kuhn 1939).
“Foreign” svaradi pjoå- fyr kon- Other Total Diff.
konungar ungi context words
Atiakviåa 0 1 0 1 2 2
Brot afSigurdarkvidu 0 0 0 0+1S 0+1S
Hamdismål 1 1 0 1 3 3
Hlgdskvida 0 0 0 0 0
VQlundarkvida 0 2 2 1 5 2
Atlamål 1 0 0 0+1S 1 + 1S 1
Fragm. in Heidreks saga 0 0 0 0 0
Fragm. in VQlsunga saga 0 0 0 0 0
Fdfnismål 0 0 0 0 0
GudrunarhvQt 0 4 0 0 4 1
24 The examples are listed in Kuhn 1939: 187-90, 199-201, 208-209 = 1969: 492-93,
500-501,507.
The word ørindi (or erindi) is not included in the material because it may also have had
long first syllable, eyrindi (Kuhn 1939: 187-88 = 1969: 492). This exclusion may seem
somewhat suspect. Because ørindi occurs only twice in “foreign” and three times in “do-
mestic” fornyrdislag (Atiakviåa 3.2, 8.8, Helgakvida HjQrvardssonar 5.2, Prymskvida
10.1, 11.2) its inclusion would weaken Kuhn’s case. The etymology of the word seems to
indicate a short vowel (cf. Ture Johannisson 1941), but it seems to have had a variant with
long vowel (diphthong). An occurrence of the word in a stanza by Sigvatr (V 2.5) is shown
by the metre to have long first syllable, which Kuhn (1983: 304) in this case interpreted as
English or Danish influence. On the evidence of this skaldic stanza I think the exclusion of
the word from the material is justified. Moreover, Kuhn actually noted one instance from
Lilja as an example of the word type in question, and he did not adduce any evidence from
skaldic poetry showing that the vowel was long (diphthong). However, cf. Kuhn 1983:
304.
With the help of Kellogg’s Edda-concordance (1988) the accuracy of Kuhn’s excerption
may be rapidly checked, as far as the poems included in this concordance are concerned.
Very few examples tum out to have been overlooked by Kuhn. He also wams that there
may be more examples than he has noted: “at least” 18 examples in the “foreign” group
(Kuhn 1939: 189 = 1969: 493).