to be over. Of is probably also the root of yfir. Instead of fyrir for is also found, which is the root-form, and has been kept in Dansk, as also fur and fyri when a cons. follows yr, or is found for úr, meðr for með, viðr for við, at, against.
548. Among the old poetic conjunct. the following deserve to be remarked; allz. since, as, (Germ. als) with the indic.; siðr that-not with the conj.; heldr for that, with conj.; sizt since, after that (Lokagl. 17). The negat. is often nè before the verb, as in Angl. Sax. and Russ., e. g. at þèr mæla nè megað.
549. It would take as much space as it would be difficult to describe or bring under rule the poetic inversions, because they consist in their very nature in departures from all rule. As a very common kind I may remark, that ok with the last clause of a sentence is very often put before that which should be joined to it by the conj., e. g.
The construction here is, yxn báru fjögur höfuð oc átta enni-tungl, þar er geingu fyrir vin-eyjar vídri vall-rauf, i. e. The oxen bore four heads and eight eyes, (brow-moons), whe they went before (drew) the wide reft-field of the dear isle.
550. Besides these grammatical peculiarities the poetic language has many verbal variations from the common Icel. prose. These consist partly of peculiar words (ókend heiti,) partly in poetic periphrases (kenningar), drawn, some from nature, some from mythology and the oldest Norse and German History. To enumerate and describe these would be to write a separate Dictionary. Until such a separate work shall bave been compiled, very valuable explanations on the matter are to be found in the Skálda, Olafsen's ”Norse Poesy”, as well as in the Index to the Landnáma, Njála, Edda, and the Solutions of the verses in Eigla.
