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SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

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128 Saga-Book Ofthe Vihing <strong>Society</strong><br />

Compared to this the deformations of the old "nickers"<br />

and the Homocentauri seem mild indeed, though the<br />

principle of distortion is the same. But for a comparison<br />

with skaldic style, we should notice how the skalds would<br />

distort their head, describing it in their language of<br />

kennings. You find head described in 75 different ways,<br />

for example, "a field of the brows", "high-mountain of the<br />

hair", and "holtwood of the brain house". An eye can<br />

be permutated in 65 different ways and called "foreheadlightning",<br />

"the white field of the eye-lids", and the<br />

famous "lash-moon of the brows". In comparison with<br />

eyes the skalds have not many variations for ears and<br />

noses, only fifteen and five respectively. Egill calls his<br />

ears "the mouth of hearing", his nose "the mid-stall of<br />

the brows". Mouth can be varied in 35 ways and called<br />

"the temple of words", "the land of the gums or the teeth",<br />

"the smithy of sorcery or song", and "the village of<br />

dispute". Perhaps the skalds were not any less successful<br />

than Picasso in dismembering the head.<br />

Another feature of skaldic poetry is the irregularity of<br />

its word order. This feature did not bother the Icelandic<br />

scholar Finnur Jonsson who had learnt his lesson from<br />

some undeniable tmeses in the poetry like pa var lo-meo<br />

jotmtm/-unnr nyhomin sunnan, "Then was Id- among the<br />

giants -un recently come from the south", where we have<br />

a separation or tmesis of the name of the goddess Idun.<br />

But Professor Ernst A. Rock of Lund spent a quarter of<br />

a century trying to read order into what he termed the<br />

topsy-turvy editions of Finnur Jonsson. Brilliant as he<br />

was, much more so than Finnur jrmsson, he may well have<br />

succeeded in isolated cases, but hardly in divining the<br />

underlying spirit of the skalds, who may have wanted to<br />

be understood by their audience, but spoke nevertheless<br />

in as hard riddles as they could. In fact, their spirit may<br />

sometimes have been nearer to the modern poet who does<br />

not care whether he is understood or not, or to the modern<br />

painter who primarily wants to dazzle or impress or

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