Mythological Names and dróttkvætt Formulae II: Base-Word-Determinant Indexing

Authors

  • - Frog Folklore Studies / Department of Philosophy, History, Culture and Art Studies, University of Helsinki

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12697/smp.2014.1.2.03

Keywords:

oral poetry, variation, formula, skaldic poetry, dróttkvætt, kenning

Abstract

This article explores patterns of language use in oral poetry within a variety of semantic formula. Such a formula may vary its surface texture in relation to phonic demands of the metrical environment in which it is realised. This is the second part of a four-part series based on metrically entangled kennings in Old Norse dróttkvætt poetry as primary material. Old Norse kennings present a semantic formula of a particular type which is valuable as an example owing to the extremes of textural variation that it enables. The first part in this series introduced the approach to kennings as semantic formulae and included an illustrative case study on kennings meaning ‘battle’ realising the last three metrical positions of a dróttkvætt line. This demonstrated that lexical variation in realising these formulae varied according to functional equivalence across semantic categories. The present case study advances this discussion through the examination of the metrical entanglement of the lexicon in realising the semantic formula. On the one hand, it presents evidence of the associative indexing of lexical items realising a battle-kenning of this particular metric-structural type: certain kenning base-words exhibit a preferred semantic category of determinant. On the other hand, it also presents evidence of the associative indexing of lexical items that are used for realising the metrically required rhyme in a position in the line that is outside of the semantic formula: certain kenning base-words exhibit co-occurrence with a particular rhyme-word.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

<div class="WordSection1"><p>Abrahams, Roger D. 1969 [1976]. The Complex Relations of Simple Forms. In: Ben-Amos, Dan (ed.), <em>Folklore Genres</em>. Austin: University of Texas Press, 193–214.</p><p>Agha, Asif 2007. <em>Language and Social Relations</em>. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.</p><p>Árnason, Kristján 1991. <em>The Rhythms of </em>dróttkvætt <em>and Other Old Icelandic Metres</em>. Reykjavík: University of Iceland, Institute of Linguistics.</p><p>Bybee, Joan 2006. From Usage to Grammar: The Mind’s Response to Repetition. In: <em>Language</em><em> </em>82(4), 711–733.  <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/lan.2006.0186" target="_blank">http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/lan.2006.0186</a></p><p>Björnsson, Eysteinn –2001. Lexicon of Kennings and Similar Poetic Circumlocutions: The Domain of Battle. URL: <a href="https://notendur.hi.is/~eybjorn/ugm/kennings/kennings.html">https://notendur.hi.is//~eybjorn/ugm/kennings/</a> <a href="https://notendur.hi.is/~eybjorn/ugm/kennings/kennings.html">kennings.html</a></p><p>Clunies Ross, Margaret (ed.) 2007. <em>Poetry</em><em> </em><em>on</em><em> </em><em>Christian</em><em> </em><em>Subjects</em><em> </em>(2 vols.). Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols.</p><p>Clunies Ross, Margaret; Gade, Kari Ellen; Marold, Edith; Nordal, Guðrún; Whaley, Diana; Wills, Tarrin 2012. General Introduction. In: Whaley, Diana (ed.) 2012. <em>Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas I: From Mythical Times to c. 1035 </em>(2 vols.). Turnhout: Brepols, xiii–xciii.</p><p>Coleman, R. G. G. 1999. Poetic Diction, Poetic Discourse and the Poetic Register. In: Adams, James Noel; Mayer, Roland (eds.), <em>Aspects of the Language of Latin Poetry. </em>New York: Oxford University Press, 21–93.</p><p>Drout, Michael D. 2011. Variation within Limits: An Evolutionary Approach to the Structure and Dynamics of the Multiform. In: <em>Oral Tradition </em>26(2), 447–474.  <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/ort.2011.0032" target="_blank">http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/ort.2011.0032</a></p><p>Egilsson, Sveinbjörn; Jónsson, Finnur 1931. <em>Lexicon</em><em> </em><em>poeticum</em><em> </em><em>antiquæ</em><em> </em><em>linguæ</em><em> </em><em>septentrionalis.</em><em> </em><em>Ordbog</em><em> </em><em>over</em><em> </em><em>det</em><em> </em><em>norsk-islandske</em><em> </em><em>skjaldesprog</em>. 2nd edn. København: S. I. Møllers.</p><p>Faulkes, Anthony (ed.) 1999. <em>Snorri</em><em> </em><em>Sturluson,</em><em> </em><em>Edda:</em><em> </em><em>Háttatal.</em><em> </em>London: Viking Society for Northern Research.</p><p>Foley, John Miles 1988. <em>The Theory of Oral Composition: History and Methodology</em>. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.</p><p>Foley, John Miles 1991. <em>Immanent</em><em> </em><em>Art:</em><em> </em><em>From</em><em> </em><em>Structure</em><em> </em><em>to</em><em> </em><em>Meaning</em><em> </em><em>in</em><em> </em><em>Traditional</em><em> </em><em>Oral</em><em> </em><em>Epic</em>. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.</p><p>Foley, John Miles 1993 [1990]. <em>Traditional Oral Epic: The Odyssey, Beowulf, and the Serbo-Croatian Return Song</em>. Berkeley, Los Angeles and Oxford: University of California Press.</p><p>Foley, John Miles 1995. <em>The Singer of Tales in Performance</em>. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.</p><p>Foley, John Miles 1996. <em>Guslar </em>and <em>Aoidos</em>: Traditional Register in South Slavic and Homeric Epic. In: <em>Transactions of the American Philological Association </em>126, 11–41.  <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/370170" target="_blank">http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/370170</a></p></div><div class="WordSection2"><p>Foley, John Miles 1999. <em>Homer’s</em><em> </em><em>Traditional</em><em> </em><em>Art</em>. University Park: Pennsylvania University Press.</p><p>Foley, John Miles; Ramey, Peter 2011. Oral Theory and Medieval Studies. In: Reichl, Karl (ed.), <em>Medieval Oral Literature</em>. Berlin: de Gruyter, 71–102.</p><p>Fox, James J. 1977. Roman Jakobson and the Comparative Study of Parallelism. In: Armstrong, Daniel; van Schooneveld, C. H., <em>Roman Jakobson: Echoes of His Scholarship</em>. Lisse: Peter de Ridder Press, 59−90.</p><p>Frog 2009. Speech-Acts in Skaldic Verse: Genre, Formula and Improvisation. In: Dewey, Tonya Kim; Frog (eds.), <em>Versatility in Versification: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Metrics</em>. Berkeley Insights in Linguistics and Semiotics 74. New York: Peter Lang, 223–246.</p><p>Frog 2010. Multiformit kalevalamittaisessa epiikassa. In: Knuuttila, Seppo; Piela, Ulla; Tarkka, Lotte (eds.), <em>Kalevalamittaisen runon tulkintoja</em>. Helsinki: Suomen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 91–113.</p><p>Frog 2011. Multiforms and Meaning: Playing with Referentiality in Kalevalaic Epic. In: Huttu-Hiltunen, Pekka, et al. (eds.), <em>Laulu kulttuurisena kommunikaationa</em>. Kuhmo: Juminkeko, 49–63.</p><p>Frog 2012. On the Case of <em>Vambarljóð</em><em> </em>I: Comments on Formulaicity in the <em>sagnakvæði</em>. In: <em>RMN Newsletter </em>5, 22–38.</p><p>Frog 2014a. Mythological Names in <em>dróttkvætt </em>Formulae I: When is a Valkyrie Like a Spear? In: <em>Studia Metrica et Poetica </em>1(1), 100–139. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.12697/smp.2013.1.1.06">http://dx.doi.org/10.12697/smp.2013.1.1.06</a></p><p>Frog 2014b. A Preface to Parallelism. In Frog (ed.), <em>Parallelism in Verbal Art and Performance: Pre-Print Papers of Pre-Print Papers of the Seminar-Workshop, 26</em><em>th</em><em>–27</em><em>th</em><em> </em><em>May</em><em> </em><em>2014</em>. Folkloristiikan toimite 21. Helsinki: Folklore Studies, University of Helsinki, 7–28.</p><p>Frog forthcoming. Metrical Entanglement and <em>dróttkvætt</em><em> </em>Composition: A Pilot Study on Battle-Kennings. In: Árnason, Kristján; Aðalsteinsson, Ragnar Ingi; Eyþórsson, Þórhallur; Carey, Stephen Mark (eds.), <em>Approaches to Germanic Metre </em>[working title]. Reykjavík: University of Iceland Press.</p><p>Frog; Stepanova, Eila 2011. Alliteration in (Balto-)Finnic Languages. In: Roper, Jonathan (ed.), <em>Alliteration in Culture</em>. Houndmills: Palgrave MacMillan, 195–218.</p><p>Gade, Kari Ellen 1995. <em>The Structure of Old Norse </em>dróttkvætt <em>Poetry</em>. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.</p><p>Gade, Kari Ellen (ed.) 2009. <em>Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas II: From c.1035 to c.1300 </em>(2 vols.). Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols.</p></div><div class="WordSection3"><p>Goldberg, Adele 2006. <em>Constructions</em><em> </em><em>at</em><em> </em><em>Work:</em><em> </em><em>The</em><em> </em><em>Nature of Generalization in Language. </em>Oxford: Oxford University Press.</p><p>Hainsworth, John Bryan 1968. <em>The</em><em> </em><em>Flexibility</em><em> </em><em>of the Homeric Formula</em>. Oxford: Clarendon Press.</p><p>Halliday, Michael A. K. 1978. <em>Language</em><em> </em><em>as</em><em> </em><em>Social</em><em> </em><em>Semiotic:</em><em> </em><em>Th</em><em>e</em><em> </em><em>Social</em><em> </em><em>Interpretation</em><em> </em><em>of</em><em> </em><em>Language</em><em> and Meaning</em>. London: Edward Arnold.</p><p>Harvilahti, Lauri 2000. Variation and Memory. In: Honko, Lauri, <em>Thick Corpus, Organic Variation and Textuality in Oral Tradition</em>. <em>Studia</em><em> Fennica Folkloristica </em>7. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 57–75.</p><p>Hasan, Ruqaiya 1989. <em>Linguistics,</em><em> </em><em>Language,</em><em> </em><em>and</em><em> </em><em>Verbal</em><em> </em><em>Art.</em><em> </em>Oxford: Oxford University Press.</p><p>Hollmérus, Ragnar 1992. <em>Studier</em><em> </em><em>över</em><em> </em><em>allitterationen i </em>Eddan. Helsinki: Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland.</p><p>Honko, Lauri; Honko, Anneli 1995. Multiforms in Epic Composition. In: <em>XI</em><em>th</em><em> </em><em>Congress</em><em> </em><em>of</em><em> </em><em>the</em><em> </em><em>International</em><em> </em><em>Society for Folk-Narrative Research (ISFNR), January 6–12, 1995, Mysore, India. Papers</em>. Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages, II, 207–240.</p><p>Honko, Lauri; Honko, Anneli 1998. Multiforms in Epic Composition. In: Honko, Lauri; Handoo, Jawaharlal; Foley, John Miles, <em>The Epic: Oral and Written</em>. Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages, 31–79.</p><p>Honko, Lauri 1995. Multiformit ja pitkän eepoksen arvoitus. In: <em>Sananjalka</em><em> </em>37, 117–145. Honko, Lauri 1998. <em>Textualizing the Siri Epic</em>. FF Communications 264. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica.</p><p>Honko, Lauri 2003. <em>The Maiden’s Death Song and The Great Wedding: Anne Vabarna’s Oral Twin Epic Written down by A.O. Väisnen</em>. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica.</p><p>Hopkins, Joseph 2014. Goddesses Unknown II: <em>Ilmr</em>. In: <em>RMN Newsletter </em>8, 32-38.</p><p>Jakobson, Roman 1987 [1956]. Two Aspects of Language and Two Types of Aphasic Disturbances. In: Jakobson, Roman, <em>Language</em><em> </em><em>in</em><em> </em><em>Literature</em>, Pomorska, Krystyna; Rudy, Stephen (eds.). Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 95–114.</p><p>Jónsson, Finnur (ed.) 1967. <em>Den Norsk-Islandske Skjaldedigtning </em>A–B. København: Rosenkilde &amp; Bagger.</p><p>Kuhn, Hans 1983. <em>Das Dróttkvætt</em>. Heidelberg: Carl Winter.</p></div><p>Lord, Albert Bates 1960. <em>Th</em><em>e</em><em> </em><em>Singer</em><em> </em><em>of</em><em> </em><em>Tales</em>. <em>Harvard</em><em> </em><em>Studies</em><em> </em><em>in</em><em> </em><em>Comparative</em><em> </em><em>Literature </em>24. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.</p><p>Marold, Edith 1983. <em>Kenningkunst: Ein Beitrag zu einer Poetik der Skaldendichtung</em>. <em>Quellen und Forschungen zur Sprach- und Kulturgeschichte der germanischen Völker, Neue Folge </em>80. Berlin: de Gruyter.</p><p>Meissner, Rudolf 1921. <em>Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik</em>. Bonn: Schroeder</p><p>Parry, Milman 1928. <em>L’épithète traditionnelle dans Homère</em>. Paris: Société d’Éditions Les Belles Lettres.</p><p>Price, Neil S. 2002. <em>The Viking Way: Religion and War in Late Iron Age Scandinavia</em>. Uppsala: Department of Archaeology and Ancient History.</p><p>Roper, Jonathan 2012. Synonymy and Rank in Alliterative Poetry. In: <em>Sign Systems Studies </em>40(1/2), 82–93.  <a id="pub-id::doi" href="http://dx.doi.org/10.12697/SSS.2012.1-2.05">http://dx.doi.org/10.12697/SSS.2012.1-2.05</a></p><p>Saussure, Ferdinand de 1967 [1916]. <em>Cours de linguistique générale</em>. Paris: Éditions Payot &amp; Rivages.</p><p>Siikala, Anna-Leena 1990 [1984]. <em>Interpreting Oral Narrative</em>. FF Communications 245. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica.</p><p><em>Skaldic</em><em> Database</em><a href="http://abdn.ac.uk/skaldic/db.php">. URL: http://abdn.ac.uk/skaldic/db.php</a></p><p>Tolley, Clive 1996. <em>V</em><em>ǫ</em><em>rðr </em>and <em>Gandr</em>: Helping Spirits in Norse Magic. In: <em>Arkiv för Nordisk Filologi </em>110, 57–75.</p><p>Wills, Tarrin 2009. The Development of Skaldic Language. In: Ney, Agneta; Williams, Henrik; Ljungqvist, Fredrik Charpentier (eds.), <em>Á austrvega: Saga and East Scandinavia. Preprint Papers of the 14</em><em>th </em><em>International</em><em> </em><em>Saga</em><em> </em><em>Conference,</em><em> </em><em>Uppsala,</em><em> </em><em>9</em><em>th</em><em>–15</em><em>th</em><em> </em><em>August</em><em> </em><em>2009</em>. Gävle: University of Gävle, 1032–1038.</p><p>Wray, Alison 2008. <em>Formulaic</em><em> </em><em>Language: Pushing the Boundaries</em>. Oxford: Oxford University Press.</p>Wray, Alison 2009. Identifying Formulaic Language: Persistent Challenges and New Opportunities. In: Corrigan, Roberta, et al. (eds.), <em>Formulaic Language </em>I–II. Typological Studies in Language 82–83. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing, I, 27–51.

Downloads

Published

2014-12-31

Issue

Section

Articles