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
• Edited by: Hermann Schneider.
• 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. Ed. Hermann Schneider. Heidelberg: Carl Winter – Universitätsverlag, 1952.

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Annotation

According to the author, 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, who relate the first half of the third stanza to the second stanza. Instead, he claims, the third stanza introduces the poem’s main theme – the loss of the son. In addition, Wolff-Marburg offers an alternative reading of the second and third line of the third stanza. In contrast to es lifnaði á nǫktveri, he suggests the reading es lifa náði á nǫktveri (“he, who could live […] has the naked sea”), justified by the translation of lifna as “to stay alive.” He concludes that according to the poem Egill hopes for his son to be taken to Valhǫll, rather than to be received in Rán’s realm, as the drowned are traditionally thought to be.

References

Chapter 80: er lifnaði. “So ist nun der Raum gegeben, daß die 3. Strophe mit neuem Einsatz das Thema selbst in Angriff nimmt: es ist nicht möglich, daß der 1. Helming noch auf etwas völlig anderes zielt, und darauf mit dem 2. Helming der Hauptteil des Gedichts den Anfang nähme“ (p. 106).

Links

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