Iceland 1930

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1830571079

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-221162

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Iceland 1930

Edition:: 2. ed.

Place of publication:: Reykjavík

Publisher:: Ríkisprentsmiđjan Gutenberg

Year of publication:: 1930

Scope:: 193 S.; Tab., Kt., Taf.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Literature

Collection:: Economics Books

137 pretty closely. The tale selected for conversion into this metrical form, 's almost without exception divided into several sections each of which is worked into a separate rima (or fytte). Almost every rima begins. with a certain number of introductory lines (a kind of exordium), called “man-séngur® or maid-song, as the theme is in most cases either love, a lady, or the poet's own private affairs. Kennings or circumlocutions are extensively used after the style of the old scaldic verse, but not always with as clear an understanding of their original meaning. In the evening the rimur were sung century after century in the homes of rich and poor alike, and have thus helped the people to understand the ancient lays. The rimur chants are among the most characteristic musical compositions produced in Iceland. The usual number of lines in a rimur-stanza is four, but some- limes only three or even two; they end in a rime of one syllable (or more’, internal rimes are not infrequent, and alliteration after the manner of the court-poetry. By varying the number and length of the lines, and by shifting the position of the riming syllables, a great variety was obtained, and the number of metres increased to an in- credible extent. Scholars have recorded as many as 2267 metres. To such a length was this artificial riming carried that the poets composed even whole sets of rimur in such a way that every stanza could be read, word for word, backward and forward without the least injury to either thought, diction, alliteration or rime-syliables, as the follow- ing quatrain will make clear: Grundar déma, hvergi hann hallar réttu méli, stundar séma, aldrei ann Srqu pretta tali. This metre is called sléttubénd (= palindrome). By changing the order of words and sentences we obtain four variations of this stanza, sach of which can be read backward and forward, so that in reality here are eight variations, all metrically correct and in natural style. Now, by placing the commas in the first and third lines after ‘hvergi ind ‘aldrei’ respectively, this verse is changed into a libellous ditty. There are even instances of palindromes that may be changed in nine- ty six different ways. Such playing upon words may seem useless and excessive, but it shows the importance attached to the form, the metre, by the Icelanders who have made of it an art for art’s sake, a pro- ylem on which to exercise their ingenuity. In this way the language has. in an ever increasing degree, been attuned to the most elaborate

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