Að kaupa til karnaðar sér ambátt

Abstract

This paper discusses the Old Icelandic hapax karnaðr, which is preserved in the Codex Regius of Grágás where its meaning and formation must be inferred from the phrase kaupa til karnaðar sér ambátt ‘buy a female slave for one’s karnaðr’. Sections 2 and 3 discuss earlier accounts of the meaning and development of the masculine u-stem karnaðr, e.g., Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon’s contribution. Sections 4 and 5 compare the sentence containing karnaðr in Codex Regius to the version attested in Staðarhólsbók. It is concluded that the phrase kaupa til karnaðar sér ambátt, occurring in a chapter on manumission, referred to the legal procedure of freeing a bondwoman, and that, contrary to the most widely held opinion, the noun karnaðr did not have direct sexual connotations. In section 6 the author suggests that OIcel. karnaðr meant ‘care’, its closest cognates being OIcel. kǫr ‘infirmity’, Go., OS kara, OE cearu ‘care, concern’ and OHG kara ‘lament’ (< PGmc. *kar-ō < PIE *gor-eh₂, to the PIE root *ger- ‘cry, complain’).