Subject
Danish words in Stevenson and Pale Fire? CHW to CK & AS
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1. Alexey Sklyarenko wrote:
In his lecture on R. L. Stevenson, VN points out that both "Hyde" and
"Jekyll" are Danish words, just as the word "bodkin" happens to be one.
Add to this the fact that the word "kinbote" occurs in "Jekyll and Hyde"
(as pointed out by Carolyn).
2. Carolyn wrote:
Dear Alexey,
I found your Danish observations very tasty, and your karlik/dwarf/Hyde
point filled me with pleasure, but I must make a small correction to
your otherwise completely delectable contribution.
The word "kinbote" does not actually appear in the RLS story. But the
act of kinbote defines the first action involving Jekyll/Hyde in the
tale. Hyde commits a criminal act - - he runs over and tramples a small
girl. Her family (or kin) come after Hyde demanding retribution (bot or
bote in old legal language). Of course Jekyll is more endangered by the
confrontation with the child's family (he might be exposed) and he,
Jekyll, can only escape by paying kinbote for Hyde's criminal act. Even
though RLS was trained to the law and may have known the word kinbote,
his readers would not.
3. Four years ago (August 12, 2003) the subject of VN's use of "Danish"
came up, and a list poster wrote:
I wonder what kind of Danish Nabokov spoke. As a native Dane I am
mystified. There is no Danish word HIDE, meaning "a haven". HID means
hither. Or would it be better to choose English HIDE (as: skin), which
is HUD in Danish? JOKULL (not Jokulle) is not Danish, but Icelandic,
and does not mean "icicle" but "glacier". Arne Herlov Petersen
------------------
To this I would add that "Danish" is imprecise of VN. I do not believe
any scholar in linguistics would refer to "Danish" words. There is Old
Norse, Anglo-Saxon (I abhor the term "Old English"), Germanic. "Danish",
per se and under that name, is a comparatively late language,
non-existent before about 700-800. Most "Danish" words were already
established in Anglo-Saxon England (400 onwards). The meanings had
sometimes shifted slightly. The Saxons came from North Germany, and the
Angles came from what is now south-western Sweden, and, admittedly,
parts of what is now modern Denmark.
"Hyde", Germanic, could be cognate with English "hut", Swedish "hydda",
ie in modern English a hunter's "hide", (or, as Petersen wrote, "hud",
an animal or human skin --- "I'll tan your hide" in the song) rather
than "conceal", which in Germanic languages is completely different.
"Joekel", Old Norse and modern Icelandic, definitely means "glacier".
There are mountains in Iceland incorporating the word. There are no
mountains or glaciers of any sort in Denmark. R.L.Stevenson might have
had Hyde's hairiness in mind. Dr Jekyll was perhaps a rather glacial
sort of fellow.
"Bodkin" --- and one thing that a bodkin is not, is a "Danish" stiletto
--- is, etymologically speaking, a uniquely English word, deriving its
sense from "little body". The main Anglo-Saxon element in the word,
"bodig", has no present equivalent, to my knowledge, in other Germanic
languages, where "body" is translated by wholly different words,
etymologically speaking. If you search hard and long, you will
eventually find English dictionary definitions for it, among many
others, of (obsolete) "small dagger", "seaman's dirk", and even
"stiletto" buried in the midst of "short pointed weapon", "small
dagger", "poniard", "stiletto", "lancet", (obsolete), (in the OED).
These would in part appear to be influenced by Shakepeare's use of the
word.
Otherwise, and much more immediately, it is "a small pointed instrument,
of bone, ivory, or steel, used for piercing holes in cloth etc", "a
pin", "an awl-like tool". Shakespeare's employment of "bodkin", in
Hamlet's "bare bodkin", is to exploit its distinctive difference from
the slender elegance of the sharp-pointed, tempered steel of an Italian
stiletto. It is a homely, domestic sort of word, describing an object
which would more properly belong in a woman's sewing-basket. Hamlet is
dwelling on its insignifance, even feebleness. There is a clear
undercurrent in his soliloquy, especially when modified by "bare", that
it is also a metaphor for the male sexual organ, to be academic about
it. The latent meaning "little body", which is only available to an
English speaker, and to no Dane, has aptness here.
The "bot(e)" in "Kinbote" primarily means "remedy". Specifically, it
could mean "cure", eg of an illness; or "penance/penalty"; eg a fine for
some breach of the law. If you killed a man, you would probably have to
pay his kinfolk some compensation. A person I knew in 1964 who
accidentally killed someone with his car on a highway in Iran was
immediately besieged by the dead man's family members demanding cash
compensation. They rushed out in a cluster from their nearby dwelling
when they saw what had happened.
Charles
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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In his lecture on R. L. Stevenson, VN points out that both "Hyde" and
"Jekyll" are Danish words, just as the word "bodkin" happens to be one.
Add to this the fact that the word "kinbote" occurs in "Jekyll and Hyde"
(as pointed out by Carolyn).
2. Carolyn wrote:
Dear Alexey,
I found your Danish observations very tasty, and your karlik/dwarf/Hyde
point filled me with pleasure, but I must make a small correction to
your otherwise completely delectable contribution.
The word "kinbote" does not actually appear in the RLS story. But the
act of kinbote defines the first action involving Jekyll/Hyde in the
tale. Hyde commits a criminal act - - he runs over and tramples a small
girl. Her family (or kin) come after Hyde demanding retribution (bot or
bote in old legal language). Of course Jekyll is more endangered by the
confrontation with the child's family (he might be exposed) and he,
Jekyll, can only escape by paying kinbote for Hyde's criminal act. Even
though RLS was trained to the law and may have known the word kinbote,
his readers would not.
3. Four years ago (August 12, 2003) the subject of VN's use of "Danish"
came up, and a list poster wrote:
I wonder what kind of Danish Nabokov spoke. As a native Dane I am
mystified. There is no Danish word HIDE, meaning "a haven". HID means
hither. Or would it be better to choose English HIDE (as: skin), which
is HUD in Danish? JOKULL (not Jokulle) is not Danish, but Icelandic,
and does not mean "icicle" but "glacier". Arne Herlov Petersen
------------------
To this I would add that "Danish" is imprecise of VN. I do not believe
any scholar in linguistics would refer to "Danish" words. There is Old
Norse, Anglo-Saxon (I abhor the term "Old English"), Germanic. "Danish",
per se and under that name, is a comparatively late language,
non-existent before about 700-800. Most "Danish" words were already
established in Anglo-Saxon England (400 onwards). The meanings had
sometimes shifted slightly. The Saxons came from North Germany, and the
Angles came from what is now south-western Sweden, and, admittedly,
parts of what is now modern Denmark.
"Hyde", Germanic, could be cognate with English "hut", Swedish "hydda",
ie in modern English a hunter's "hide", (or, as Petersen wrote, "hud",
an animal or human skin --- "I'll tan your hide" in the song) rather
than "conceal", which in Germanic languages is completely different.
"Joekel", Old Norse and modern Icelandic, definitely means "glacier".
There are mountains in Iceland incorporating the word. There are no
mountains or glaciers of any sort in Denmark. R.L.Stevenson might have
had Hyde's hairiness in mind. Dr Jekyll was perhaps a rather glacial
sort of fellow.
"Bodkin" --- and one thing that a bodkin is not, is a "Danish" stiletto
--- is, etymologically speaking, a uniquely English word, deriving its
sense from "little body". The main Anglo-Saxon element in the word,
"bodig", has no present equivalent, to my knowledge, in other Germanic
languages, where "body" is translated by wholly different words,
etymologically speaking. If you search hard and long, you will
eventually find English dictionary definitions for it, among many
others, of (obsolete) "small dagger", "seaman's dirk", and even
"stiletto" buried in the midst of "short pointed weapon", "small
dagger", "poniard", "stiletto", "lancet", (obsolete), (in the OED).
These would in part appear to be influenced by Shakepeare's use of the
word.
Otherwise, and much more immediately, it is "a small pointed instrument,
of bone, ivory, or steel, used for piercing holes in cloth etc", "a
pin", "an awl-like tool". Shakespeare's employment of "bodkin", in
Hamlet's "bare bodkin", is to exploit its distinctive difference from
the slender elegance of the sharp-pointed, tempered steel of an Italian
stiletto. It is a homely, domestic sort of word, describing an object
which would more properly belong in a woman's sewing-basket. Hamlet is
dwelling on its insignifance, even feebleness. There is a clear
undercurrent in his soliloquy, especially when modified by "bare", that
it is also a metaphor for the male sexual organ, to be academic about
it. The latent meaning "little body", which is only available to an
English speaker, and to no Dane, has aptness here.
The "bot(e)" in "Kinbote" primarily means "remedy". Specifically, it
could mean "cure", eg of an illness; or "penance/penalty"; eg a fine for
some breach of the law. If you killed a man, you would probably have to
pay his kinfolk some compensation. A person I knew in 1964 who
accidentally killed someone with his car on a highway in Iran was
immediately besieged by the dead man's family members demanding cash
compensation. They rushed out in a cluster from their nearby dwelling
when they saw what had happened.
Charles
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm