Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1999, Síða 335
XII Foreign matter poems
315
The instances of the type svaradi Kuhn separated into two groups; on
the one hånd “foreign” poems and “Eddie praise poems” dependent on
them, and on the other hånd poetry from the post-classical period. For
each group different explanations are given - in one case extemal influ-
ence and in the other a historical development. In skaldic poetry from
the 14th century the word-forms in question are more frequent than
earlier; dozens of examples may be found, and only from Lilja, whose
author is known as a rebel against the old poetic technique, 8 examples
are quoted. On this evidence the “domestic” examples are assigned to
the 14th or, at the earliest, the 13th century.
Words of the second type are somewhat less rare in Old Norse poetry;
in earlier poetry the type is not uncommon in Ijodahåttr and in minor
skaldic metres, and like the type svaradi they are more frequent in the
14th century. All occurrences in fornyrdislag are given in the table.
The conclusions to be drawn from the table depend to a great extent
on how the examples with Sigurdr are judged. Kuhn convincingly dem-
onstrated that the first syllable in this word counted as long in the older
skaldic poetry. For the nominative and accusative forms the following
evolution is reconstructed: *SigVQrd(r) > *Sigvord(r) > *Sigord(r) >
Sigurd(r). The first skaldic line where the syllable is seen to be short is
in a stanza from about 1050: Sigurdr eggjadi sleggju (PjodA IV 15). In
our context we are concemed with the trisyllabic forms, gen. and dat.
(Sigurdar, Sigurdi), where forms without -v- were introduced by anal-
ogy only at a later stage; a long syllable in the dative is still found in
Jomsvlkingadråpa around 1200 (Kuhn 1939: 200 = 1969: 501). In Eddie
poetry, therefore, cases with Sigurdr must be kept apart, because the first
syllable may have been either long or short.
If all examples are counted, trisyllabic words with short first syllables
are seen to occur in 13 out of 20 “foreign” poems, while they are com-
paratively rare outside this group. But if the examples with Sigurdr are
left out, only 8 “foreign” poems remain. In 6 of them, trisyllabic words
with short first syllables are found in more than one different word (Sig-
urdr exeluded, examples of the type svaradi included): Sigurdarkvida in
skamma has 9 examples in 6 different words, Gudrunarkvida II 4 in 3
words, both Gudrunarkvida I and Hamdismål 3 in 3 words, Vplundar-
kvida 5 in 2 words, and Atlakvida 2 in 2 words. I think it can safely be
said that the occurrence of this metrical type is a characteristic feature of
these poems.