Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Sidor ...
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
130 Hollander: Gautrekssaga and Hrólfssaga.
minine I do not know. Most natural it would be to sup-
pose Germ, -pa, -Üa (Ide. -to) suffix which forms abstracts
of masc. and neut. gender. Cf. O.N. mor-fty O.H.G. mor-d
’murder’; Goth, ai-ps, O.N. ei-ftr ’oath’ etc. — Else, the
feminine gender may he justified by assuming Germ, -(fypônin
(Ide. -tå) suffix, entering into the composition of fem.
noun-abstracts. Cf. Goth. Hauhi-pa (to the adj. hauhs, gen.
Jiauhi-s), Ags. hieh-po, O.H.G. Mhi-da, O.N. hce-ft *).
However, Ketil is no weakling, even according to Old
Norse conceptions, but a right manful, if heady, hotspur.
Indeed, he produces the impression of fierceness, his fylgja
is imagined as a ”göltr mikill — — — grimligr ok il-
liligr" 2). Since, on the other hand, we must rule out as
highly unlikely, because of the origin of the saga, the sup-
position that Ketill had come by his epithet through inheri-
tance, as was the case with such not very flattering nick-
names as skjálgr, bjúgr, skakkr, we seem to stand before a
orux. It may be that the name itself can solve it.
There is a group of words of the same consonantism,
possibly from the same root, but exhibiting a semasiological
differentation of an easily explicable kind 3). Ross: Kreks
m. ’a headstrong, obstinate person’ (Voss); Krekse m. & n.
’do.’ (Søndfj. and Søndhordl.); kreksen, kriksen, kriklig, adj.
’tvær, trodsig, vrangvillig; obstinate, wrong-headed; Aasen:
krekla v. n. ’at yppe trætte, to pick a quarrel’. Etc. The
quality of quarrelsomeness, headstrongness, implied in words
of this group would fit Ketill excellently well. And the
probability of his epithet having that meaning is greatly
strengthened when we consider that it is equally applicable
to the prototypes of Ketill, which I have otherwhere 4) shown
’) Cf. Kluge, Nominale Stammbildungslehre.
2) ed. chap. xxii. Very characteristically, the MSS. of the enlarg
version have, instead, "(göltr) hann var ekki svá mikill" etc. Cf. Detter, p. xi.
*) Cf. Falk & Torp, sub ’krangel1
.
*) 1. c.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
