Manneskja er dýr og henni er hætt

Um nykrað

Abstract

Recognising that poetry is bound to reflect the world as it investigates the condition of man, the present article seeks to reappraise the meaning and function of nykrað, 'disharmonious imagery', as opposed to nýgerving, the term traditionally favoured in scholarship, at least since Snorri's Edda. Snorri rather frowns on nykrað, whereas the perfectly harmonised imagery of nýgerving is seen as the epitome of scaldic art. The author accepts that nykrað derives from nykur, the waterhorse of folk legend. He maintains that the most common Icelandic version of this legend is a very apt metaphor for the universally recognised human experience of almost failing to escape from some risky situation, of almost not surviving as a member of civilised human society and, as a consequence, of being lost in the wilderness, or in death. Human life is fraught with such dangers, and the animal nykur is its personification, ever likely to confront and befuddle us on the borderline between civilisation and chaos. It can appear anywhere — as the tiger ridden by the lady of Niger or, perhaps, as the animal nature threatening the foolish woman in the verse cited by Ólafur Þórðarson. If poetry is to have real meaning in our lives, it must involve an element of risk: nykrað must be granted priority over the elevated verbal craftsmanship of nýgerving, whose priority is the virtual elimination of the unexpected. In the end, because we need to be aware of danger in order to avoid it and survvive, nykrað is important to us and nýgerving is not.