Stefán Einarsson. Terms of Direction in Old Icelandic

• Author: Stefán Einarsson
• Title: Terms of Direction in Old Icelandic
• Published in: Journal of English and German Philology 43/3
• Year: 1944
• Pages: 265-85
• E-text:
• Reference: Stefán Einarsson. "Terms of Direction in Old Icelandic." Journal of English and German Philology 43/3 (1944): 265-85.

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• Key words: topography, language and style (staðfræði, mál og stíll)

Annotation

Terms of direction in Icelandic sagas analysed, with an emphasis on local idiom or dialectal usages. Sagas are classified as western, eastern, northern or southern texts on the basis of the locality or setting of the text and the use of direction words examined. The frequency of directive adverbs inn, út, upp, ofan and fram in fourteen texts, suggests a number of regional tendancies. Egils saga uses two sets of directive adverbs – like Landnáma –: inn:út, upp:ofan. The first pair meains ‘towards the land,’ ‘towards the sea,’ pregnant meaning: ‘west,’ the second: ‘upp from the sea to the mountains, up the valley,’ ‘down (to the valley, down (the valley) to the sea.’ The characteristic thing about these sets is that inn and upp do not overlap, inn is used only as far as the shore line, upp above it. But út is not limited by the shore line; nevertheless út and ofan rarely if ever overlap, and ofan never takes the meaning vestr. It is ofan með ánni... ‘down along the river,’ but út með sjó... ‘out along the coast.’

Links

• Written by: Katelin Parsons
• Icelandic translation: