Abstract
At the end of the Eddic poem Lokasenna ‘Loki’s flyting’ (65), the god Loki curses Ægir, a personification of the ‘Sea’, to have flames burn ‘on his back’ (Old Norse á baki). This choice of words is to be traced back to the inherited poetical image of the [BACK – of the WATERS], a metaphor for the surface of waterbasins attested in the same narrative contexts in the poetical phraseology of Germanic languages such as Old Norse (bak báru) and Old English (sæs hrycg), as well as other Indo-European languages such as Old Irish (fairrge al druim), Ancient Greek (νῶτα θαλάσσης), Classical Latin (terga amnis) and Vedic Sanskrit (salilásya prsthá -).
| Titolo tradotto del contributo | [Autom. eng. transl.] The [BACK - of WATERS] in ancient Nordic (bak báru 'back of the wave') and in Old English (sǣs hrycg 'back of the sea'): innovation and tradition of an Indo-European metaphor in the Germanic context |
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| Lingua originale | Italian |
| pagine (da-a) | 69-87 |
| Numero di pagine | 19 |
| Rivista | ANNALI DEL DIPARTIMENTO DI STUDI LETTERARI, LINGUISTICI E COMPARATI. SEZIONE LINGUISTICA |
| Volume | 7 |
| DOI | |
| Stato di pubblicazione | Pubblicato - 2018 |
Keywords
- Back, waters, Indo-European, poetics, phraseology.
- Dorso, acqua, indoeuropeo, poetica, fraseologia.