O Hoffnung,

daß wir nicht umsonst sind,

O Reinheit

O Vergebung

O Morgen, Morgen, Brüder,

O täglich neu tauendes Haupt,

O täglich neu erschaffener Mensch.32

Dies ist sein letztes und höchstes Begreifen: Nicht Erkenntnis, um der Erkenntnis willen, wie der Osten lehrt, Erkenntnis um der Liebe willen. Was aber ist Erkennen?,, Erkennen heißt teilhaben am Schicksal des Erkannten. Erkennen heißt, ein hic et ubique sein. Ist Erkennen und Liebe zweierlei? Erkennen und Liebe ist einerlei." 33 Erwacht aus dem östlichen Gefriertod, kehrt er wieder zurück in die warme Liebeswelt des Christentums. Allzu sehr ist er nach Osten gegangen, so kam er allzu sehr nach Westen. Nicht vergeblich war sein Gang. Was er als Unsinn, Gewalt, Macht, Lüge u.s.w. bezeichnet hatte, begreift er nun als Schicksal. So erscheint es mir wenigstens, wenn ich die Worte des Gerichtstags,, Schicksal des Schlafes: Nachatmen, Nachodem, Atem des Menschen," in ihrer mystischen Tiefe richtig zu erfassen vermag. Keine Niedergeschlagenheit braucht den Menschen deswegen zu befallen, denn Gott lebt, Gott wirkt, Gott wirkt Wunder. Keine Wunder wie sie die Kirche lehrt. Das Wunder ist die Geburt des Heilandes, der ,, aus jedem Muttermund erstritten wird," der uns mit seinem Schrei aus der Vernichtung hebt." Das Weib als Mutter, das Kind als Neugeburt Gottes, zusammen mit dem Mann als natürliche Gemeinschaft," in der Liebe, Hingabe, Opfer, Reinheit, Güte, Milde in stiller, nun durch nichts mehr zu zu zersetzender Harmonie zusammenwirken, das ist das vorläufige Endglied der Kette von Verwandlungen, die, wie mir erscheinen will, im Bocksgesang mit der bewußten Hingabe Stanjas an das menschlich-tierische Unwesen und ihre Schwängerung durch dieses ihre Krönung findet. Sterben und Wiederentstehen als neuer Mensch auf entsühnter Erde, eine 32,, Gesang der Memnonssäule." Gerichtstag. 33 Der Mächtige." Gerichtstag.

letzte und höchste Synthese, in der Moses, Christus, Buddha, Laotse, Nietzsche, Dostojewski, die Jungfrau Maria und das Jesuskind sich brüderlich und schwesterlich die Hände reichen, das ist, so weit ich sehen kann, der Sinn Franz Werfels als eines religiösen Dichters. In einem Wort: Rehabilitierung der Welt aus dem Geist und Erlebnis der Religion. Das aber ist kein dauernder Zustand, vielmehr ein ununterbrochener Prozeß. Es ist ein ewiges Stirb und Werde, ein ständiges Auseinanderreißen und Wiederzusammenschweißen der Pole, eine männliche Tat, die immer von neuem getan werden muß. Es ist westlicher, faustischer, dynamischer Geist. Es ist unser Schicksal, und wir heben uns selbst auf, wenn wir aus ihm heraustreten.

UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

OLD ICELANDIC NOTES

By A. M. STURTEVANT

I

CERTAIN OLD ICELANDIC WORDS WITH DIMINUTIVE SUFFIXES

a. Gris-ka, 'house-maid'

The word grid-ka occurs only once in OIcel. prose, viz., in the Grettissaga, 75, 8 (R. C. Boer's edition, An. Sagabibliothek). The regular form of this word is grid-kona. No other compound with -kona as the second member (cf. vin-kona, troll-kona, frænd-kona, etc.) ever shows a reduction of -kona to -ka. There is no phonetic law whereby -kòna (with secondary stress as the second member of a compound) could be reduced to -ka. Therefore I identify the -ka in grid-ka not with -kona but with the diminutive suffix -ka as found in feminine pet names of the Late Icelandic period, such as Val-ka (Val-gerdr), Ran-ka (Rang-eiðr : -hildr), Jó-ka (Jo-hanna), etc.

The feminine diminutive suffix -ka did not become productive until the Late Icelandic period, but there is no reason why we should assume that it did not exist (i.e., in colloquial speech) before this time.1

I regard the form grid-ka as the earliest recorded example of the use of this diminutive suffix -ka. The connection in which this word is used in the Grettissaga supports the assumption that the word grid-ka is here used as a diminutive of grid-kona.

The situation involved is as follows: Grettir swims from Drangey to the farm Reykir in quest of fire; the grid-kona discovers him lying naked on the floor and thinking him asleep makes some very vulgar remarks regarding his person; Grettir awakens in time to hear them and replies in scaldic verses with even greater vulgarity. Hereupon the writer says: "Gridka œpti hástofum,” whereas previously he has consistently used

1 Cf. the diminutive k-suffix in mad-k-r, ‘worm,' Goth. mapa, Germ. Made and Olcel. stúl-ka, ‘girl.'

the word gridkona; cf. 3, "þat var gridkona ok dóttir bónda," 4, "þá mælti griđkona,” 5, “segir gridkona."

The form grid-kona is a dignified term but the form grid-ka, 'little maid,' 'Maggie,' is used with a belittling effect like that of a diminutive proper name, cf. Jó-ka, ‘Jenny.' The form grid-ka is used here in caricature of the grid-kona; the suffix syllable -ka belongs primarily to the language of children and would, therefore, lend a satirical effect to the word. The joke was, of course, on the gridkona, for Grettir heard all her vulgar remarks, replying with even greater vulgarity.

It is possible that the similarity in form between the suffix syllable -ka and the word -kona suggested to the writer the idea of substituting one for the other, i.e., of using the diminutive suffix -ka with belittling effect.

b. The Diminutive Suffix -si in Late Icelandic Pet Names

The diminutive suffix -si is found in Late Icelandic pet names such as Grím-si (Grímr), Jón-si (Jón), Ben-si (Benedikt), etc.

The suffix -si is a compound suffix composed of s + the endings of the weak declension. What is the origin of this s-suffix here?

The most common means of forming masculine pet names in Old Icelandic was the use of the weak declension, the weak form of the name serving as a diminutive of the strong form; cf. Arni Örn, 'Eagle'; Bjarni Björn, 'Bear'; Lambi: Lamb, 'Lamb,' etc. As seen in the examples given, names of animals were often given to men.

Now, names for male animals occasionally took an s-suffix + the weak declension (i.e., -si2 nom. sing.), such as ber-si, 'he-bear,' gas-si, ‘gander,' and má-si, 'mew.' Both ber-si and má-si were used as proper names and as such must have carried

2 This suffix -si is derived from P.G. *-(a)san, the -s- being the characteristic sign for male animals, cf. OHG. fuh-s with Goth. faúh-ô fem. (see F. Kluge, Nominale Stammbildungslehre der altgerm. Dialecte, 1886, p. 15, § 28).

This suffix -si should be carefully distinguished from the suffix -si in masculine abstract nouns, such as of-si, ‘tyranny,' van-si, 'lack,' 'want.' The latter are derived from verbs having the suffix -sa (cf. of-sa, 'to be insolent,' van-sa, ‘to lack,' 'want') which in turn probably goes back to nominal es/os-stems; i.e., *of-is-ôn, *van-is-ôn, cf. K. von Bahder, Die Verbalabstracta, p. 56.

a diminutive force by virtue of the weak declension; thus Bers-i: Más-i like Arn-i : Bjarn-i. Bers-i, for instance, must have been felt as a diminutive of Björn, exactly as was Bjarn-i, by virtue of the diminutive suffix -i (i.e., the weak declension). In course of time the diminutive force inherent in the suffix -i spread to the -s-, and the whole syllable -si became felt as a diminutive suffix. In other words, since the -s- was an organic part of the syllable -si, it necessarily acquired the new (i.e., diminutive) force of the i-suffix (in proper names), with which it was inseparably associated.

Names of male animals ending in -si are, to be sure, very rare; in fact they are probably confined to the three cases mentioned above. But the name Ber-si (Bes-si) occurred very frequently and may have furnished the starting point for the transference of the diminutive suffix -si to other (pet) names. For instance, the name Björ-si < *Björn-si could hardly be possible without assuming Ber-si as the model upon which it was formed. Bjarn-i, 'Little Bear,' would have been sufficient without Björnsi, had not Ber-si already existed wherein the si-suffix was felt as a diminutive.

Undoubtedly there were other factors which entered into this question, especially as regards the productiveness of the si-suffix. Foremost among these we may consider those diminutive proper names ending in -si where the -s- was organic, such as A-si (As-mundr), Fú-si (Vig-fús), etc.; possibly also those words ending in -si (with organic -s-) which were applied to persons in a derogatory sense and therefore may have been felt as diminutives, such as dá-si, ‘a lazy fellow' (cf. dás-ask, 'to become weary'), þur-si, ‘a dunce,' bos-si (Swed. buss), ‘a lad,' etc.

If my theory be correct, then we have here an interesting

It is possible that among the words ending in -si used in a derogatory sense we have a case of the genuine si-suffix in slaf-si, ‘a slaverer,' used as a nickname in Fms. 9, 232. The -s- does not seem to be organic here; cf. slafra, 'to slaver,' and slafr, neut., 'slaver.' The word slaf-si is used as a contemptuous nickname for 'one who slavers (like a cow),' whereby the diminutive suffix -si expresses the belittling effect characteristic of diminutive suffixes.

Other possible cases of the genuine si-suffix are tjos-si, ‘he-goat'; dul-si, ‘a dwarf'; kram-si, ‘a raven'; gref-si (=gref-ill), 'a little hoe'; tap-si (a nickname); bas-si, ‘bear,' is obviously a by-form of bes-si < ber-si.