Wolff-Marburg, Ludwig. Eddisch-Skaldische Blütenlese

• Author: Wolff-Marburg, Ludwig
• Title: Eddisch-Skaldische Blütenlese (4. Zum Sonatorrek)
• Published in: Edda, Skalden, Saga: Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag von Felix Genzmer
• Place, Publisher: Heidelberg: Carl Winter – Universitätsverlag
• Year: 1952
• Pages: 105-107
• E-text:
• Reference: Wolff-Marburg, Ludwig. "Eddisch-Skaldische Blütenlese (4. Zum Sonatorrek)." Edda, Skalden, Saga: Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag von Felix Genzmer, pp. 105-107. Heidelberg: Carl Winter – Universitätsverlag, 1952.

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Annotation

In the author’s point of view, there is yet no satisfactory explanation for the third stanza of Sonatorrek. Due to metric reasons, Wolff-Marburg rejects Finnur Jónsson’s and Sigurður Nordal’s approach to relate the first helming of the third stanza to the second stanza. Instead, he claims, the third stanza starts off the poem’s main theme – the loss of the son. In addition to his rejection, Wolff-Marburg offers an alternative reading to the second and third line of the third stanza. In contrast to read es lifnaði á nǫktveri, he offers es lifa náði á nǫktveri (“he, who could live […] has the naked sea”), justified by the translation of lifna as “to stay alive.” The final conclusion, as the author states it, may be that in alteration or evolution of the perception of Valhǫll, Egill hopes for his son to be taken to Valhǫll, rather than to be received in Rán’s realm as the drowned are thought to be.

Links

• Written by: Felix Lummer
• Icelandic/English translation: