SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

Saga-Book of the Viking Society
Neither is the adj. 6neiss preserved in a form *6hneiss.
The word must thus have existed in Old West Norse
without h-. It is worth noting that the Icelandic text of
Barlaams saga here has hneyctan - did the Icelandic
writer not know the word neisan? Hdvamdl otherwise
always alliterates hl, hn, hr with h-, not with l, n, r. 8 At
the same time there did also exist hneisa f., hneisa (-st-)
vb., hneisulegr, hneisulega; and in Norwegian texts these
too are spelt without initial h-. Early Swedish and
Danish have nesa, nese, Nynorsk neisa, vb. and subst.,
but no adj. corresponding to Old West Norse neiss is
found.
According to dictionaries (Hellquist's, Holthausen's),
the etymology of these words is "dunkel" and I do not
intend to propose any solution of it. We ought perhaps
to regard the words with h- and without h- as originally
distinct: the loss of initial h in Norwegian and East Norse
caused them to fall together, and adj. neiss was discarded
in favour of the past participle of hneisa: hneistr. It will
be safest to consider the significance of adj. neiss in
isolation.
In Hdvamdl 49 we have what sounds like a proverb:
neiss er nokkvior halr. The axiom is illustrated by
a little story: I gave my clothes to two tree-men; when
they got them they thought they were rekkar. ON
rekkr m., OE rinc, OSax rink, is one of the ancient words
for man, hero, warrior.
The words rekkr and 6neiss are also linked in Atlakvioa
18: langt er at leita . rekka 6neissa. Gunnar needs
warriors against Atli, but he has brought no followers to
Atli's country, and now it is too late to send messages for
help. He should have had with him bold armed men,
dressed for battle, in herodoi», In stanza 13 of the same
8 In Htiuamdl 49 a reading *hneiss er nfJkkvior hair would give a satisfactory
alliteration (hneiss - hair), but the Barlaams saga confirms the alliteration in
n- (neiss . n@kkvior). Initial h- in hneisa is demonstrated by the alliteration in
Stjd", (1862), 5I2: herfilega hneista; and in Biskupa sogur (I858-78), I ro6:
herfiliga hneist ok rangliga raskat, Stj6rn is thought to be a Norwegian work in
origin. In HH I 48 a false but alliterating h- is put in hnifiunga»,