Note to Bárðr Lv 1I
[2] harðhendit ‘manhandled’: (a) This seems to be p. p. of a weak verb harðhenda (so also Skj B; LP: harðhendinn), which is otherwise unknown, though cf. the adj. harðhendr ‘strong-, hard-handed’, and verbs such as tvíhenda ‘to catch with two hands’, áhenda ‘to lay hands on, seize’. As Kock (NN §166) points out, the p. p. ending -it (n. nom. sg. of -hendinn) is characteristic of a strong, not a weak verb. The regular weak form would be harðhent (n. nom. sg. of -hendr), but this spoils both the syllable-count and the rhyme with stundum. Weak verbs of the henda type did not begin to form their participles in -inn before c. 1300 (Stefán Karlsson 2004, 27), so the stanza is probably later than the þáttr suggests. (b) Flat reads harðhendr verit ‘been hard-handed’ in place of harðhendit þat, with harðhendr as an adj. rather than a p. p. Skald prefers this more grammatically conventional variant but it is rejected here as it is the lectio facilior and only preserved in Flat.
References
- Bibliography
- Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
- Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
- LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
- Stefán Karlsson. 2004. The Icelandic Language. Trans. Rory McTurk. London: Viking Society for Northern Research.