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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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ÞSjár Frag 4III/3 — bifask ‘trembles’

Svát ór fitjar fjǫtri
flóðs ásynja, blóði
— raust bifask rǫmm — en systra,
rýtr, eymylvir spýtir.

Svát ásynja flóðs rýtr ór fjǫtri fitjar, en eymylvir spýtir blóði systra; rǫmm raust bifask.

So that the goddess of the sea [= Rán] wails from the fetter of the meadow [SEA], and the island-grinder [MAELSTROM] spits out the sisters’ blood [WATER]; the strong voice trembles.

readings

[3] bifask: ‘byriast’ 742ˣ, ‘byriar’ 1116ˣ, ‘biriast’ 1496ˣ

notes

[3] bifask (3rd pers. sg. pres. indic.) ‘trembles’: As it stands in the mss (normalised byrjask ‘begins’ 742ˣ, 1496ˣ or byrjar ‘begins’ 1116ˣ), the line is unmetrical (heptasyllabic), and all previous eds delete en ‘and, but’. However, this conj. cannot be omitted without creating a line that is otherwise unattested in dróttkvætt poetry. One can only arrive at a metrically correct construction by replacing the long-stemmed disyllabic verb byrjask (or byrjar) ‘begins’ with a short-stemmed verb that is neutralised in the first dip. Bifask ‘trembles’ may have been misread as byrjask, i.e. <yr> for <if> with insular <f>. The clause rǫmm raust bifask ‘the strong voice trembles’ is taken here to refer to the voice of Rán, who is described elsewhere as ‘the loud-voiced one’ (háraust, SnSt Ht 19/6), while her daughters, the waves, are called raustljótar ‘ugly-voiced’ (RvHbreiðm Hl 54/6). Alternatively, if normalised rǫst ‘current’ is adopted, the clause reads ‘the strong current trembles’, which is also possible. The connection between rǫst ‘current’ and bifask ‘trembles’ is also made in other skaldic stanzas, e.g. vestr bifask rengr í rǫstum ‘in the west, ship-frames tremble in the currents’ (Kali Lv 1/3II).

grammar

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