Heiti

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The Heiti ( old north. Heiti "name", plural Heiti ) is a stylistic figure that comes from the old Icelandic allusion to rhymes ( Edda , Skalden ) . It describes an object or name with a one-part pictorial expression that sometimes seems far-fetched and requires precise prior knowledge of myths and legends of the Germanic culture to be understood .

The function of the Heiti is that of a differentiating metaphor . When choosing the language image, a certain aspect is emphasized, e.g. B.

  • Boar and the ruler for a prince,
  • the greedy for the wolf or the fire,
  • great orator , army father and all-father for Odin .

The origin of the Heiti is less poetological than ritual . It is based on a taboo . The Old Norse religion demanded that gods or taboo things or people be called upon to have a specific quality as a justification for pronouncing the name. Heiti's abundant tradition of god names (150 examples for the god Odin alone) reflects this. Snorri Sturluson left a collection of the most important Heiti in the Bragarmál , a treatise on the poetic language of the skalds, in the Snorra Edda .

Heiti can usually only be paraphrased as multi-part expressions when translating into modern languages, which makes it difficult to distinguish clearly from Kenning .

literature

  • Halldór Halldórsson: Old Icelandic heiti in Modern Icelandic . Reykjavík 1975
  • James B. Spamer: The kenning and the kend heiti. A contraste study of periphrasis in two germanic poetic traditions . Ann Arbor (Michigan) 1981